Russian cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, who set house endurance document, dies

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, who set house endurance information on Soviet missions, then returned to orbit after a protracted absence to fly on a US house shuttle, has died on the age of 82.

Ryumin went into house 4 occasions, together with to the house stations Salyut-7 and Mir after turning into a cosmonaut in 1973.

He logged a complete of 371 days in house in two brief missions and two record-setting long-duration flights.

“We have lost a comrade and a friend,” Dmitry Rogozin, the top of the Roscosmos house company, mentioned in an announcement. “This is an irreparable loss for all of us. I express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Valery Viktorovich. The memory of him will forever remain in our hearts.”

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Ryumin, who was born August 16, 1939, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, made his final flight on a Soviet capsule in 1980, then returned to house 18 years afterward the US house shuttle Discovery when it docked with Mir.

In Memoriam: Valeri Ryumin

August 16, 1939 – June 6, 2022 pic.twitter.com/RYQniuHGII

— Association of Space Explorers (@ASE_Astronauts) June 7, 2022

“After my three flights in the eighties, I was thinking it would be nice to fly for the fourth time. I thought it would be very useful for a person who has very good flight and life experience, to visit the station,” Ryumin recalled in a NASA oral historical past quoted by the GatherSpace web site.

“I will be able to see more details and more things compared to young cosmonauts or crew members.” Ryumin will likely be buried Thursday at a navy cemetery exterior Moscow, the state information company Tass reported.

He is survived by his spouse and fellow cosmonaut Yelena Kondakova.