Leonid K. Kadeniuk (Ukrainian: Леонід Каденюк, born 28 January, 1951 in Klyshkovychi, Chernivets'ka oblast' of the Ukrainian SSR) is the first and as of 2005 the only astronaut of independent Ukraine. He made his flight on NASA's Columbia in 1997 as part of the international mission STS-87. Kadeniuk holds the rank of Ukrainian Air Force Major General.

Kadeniuk has been a career Soviet military pilot and cosmonaut since 1976. He began his service in the Soviet Air Force and later the Cosmonaut Group . With the break-up of the Soviet Union, Kadeniuk remained in the Russian Space Force and adopted Russian citizenship. In 1995, during the preparation of the first Ukrainian space mission, he volunteered to take part and immigrated to his motherland.

There were two main candidates for the mission, the other being Yaroslav Pustovyi , a civil Ukrainian scientist in space research. Kadeniuk was chosen as better-trained and accustomed to space mission organization.

After the flight, Leonid Kadeniuk continued his Ukrainian space program career, in the NKAU.

In the 2002 parliamentary election , he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the list of pro-Kuchma United Ukraine Bloc . Later, Kadeniuk joined the oligarch-oriented "Trudova Ukrayina - Industrialists and Entrepreneurs" faction, but hasn't been politically active. He works within parliament's Committee on Defense and National Security.

See also

• Space exploration
• Soviet space program

References

• 2004 interview with Leonid Kadeniuk in Dzerkalo Tyzhnya weekly (Ukrainian language)
• NASA biography