MOSCOW. Aug 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Yury Malenchenko, commander of the International Space Station (ISS), married Yekaterina Dmitriyeva, on Sunday while on an ISS mission in space. This was the first "space wedding" in history.
The marriage was registered in Houston, U.S., around 1900 GMT. The friends and relatives of the bride and groom later met in an Italian restaurant near Houston to celebrate.
On the day of the wedding, Malenchenko had a long-distance communication session with his bride and relatives, sources in the Mission Control told Interfax. Among other personal effects, the cosmonaut took a suit and a wedding ring to the ISS.
Mission Control spokesmen told Interfax that "no celebrations of the wedding will be held" on the ISS."
Malenchenko earlier announced his intention to marry while in space. The laws of the state of Texas, where his wife lives, allow marriage in the absence of either the bride or the groom.
In an explanatory note he sent to his local ZAGS office (where acts of civil status are registered in Russia), Malenchenko said that he is "a cosmonaut who is in space" and therefore could not be present at the wedding ceremony. After the flight, the newly married couple are planning to have a church wedding in Russia and then spend their honeymoon in Australia.
Malenchenko had signed a contract with a lawyer in the U.S. to represent him on Earth and to sign the marriage documents for him on Sunday. Russian Aviation and Space Agency chief Yury Koptev was invited to the wedding, but, according to sources in the agency, "could not attend the ceremony for business-related reasons."