Honeymoon must wait as bride weds cosmonaut

The new bride blew the groom a kiss and he blew one back – from about 240 miles away.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko didn’t let the fact that he’s living aboard the international space station stop him from marrying his earthbound bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev, in the first wedding ever conducted from space.

The couple wed yesterday before family and friends in a private ceremony at Johnson Space Centre in Houston, where Malenchenko took part via video link. Texas law allows weddings in which one of the parties is not present.

Dmitriev, who wore a cream-coloured wedding dress, said the two had grown closer during their time apart, making them want to marry as soon as possible.

“As Yuri was further away, he was closer to me because of the communication we have,” she said. “It was a celestial, soulful connection that we have.”

“It was very sweet,” said Joanne Woodward, the wedding planner.

A life-size cut-out of the groom greeted guests at the wedding reception, at a restaurant decorated with silver stars and mannequins dressed as astronauts.

The honeymoon will have to wait until after Malenchenko, who wore a bow tie with his blue space suit, returns to Earth in October. They plan a Russian Orthodox wedding sometime next year.

The two met five years ago and began dating last year.

He is a 41-year-old Russian air force colonel who stayed aboard space station Mir for four months in 1994. She left Russia for the US with her parents when she was three and lives in Houston.

Because Malenchenko was preparing for his mission and there was no time to plan a wedding, they decided to get married while he was still in space. The couple was issued with a marriage licence on July 17.

Malenchenko, who blasted off to the station in late April with American astronaut Edward Lu, quietly arranged to have his tail coat and wedding ring flown to him aboard a cargo ship that arrived at the station in June. Lu served as his best man during today’s ceremony, and even performed the wedding march on a keyboard in the space station.

Officials with the Russian Aerospace Agency had tried to convince Malenchenko to delay the wedding until he returned to Earth, citing legal complexities and Soviet-era rules barring military officers from marrying foreigners.

Russian officials ultimately gave their blessing but said other cosmonauts won’t be able to do the same and such rules will be included in future pre-flight contracts.