FOLLOW-UP: Cosmonaut's long journey into space (11/30/97)

FOLLOW-UP: Cosmonaut's long journey into space

by Philip Chien
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Leonid Kadenyuk became the 19th person born in Ukraine to fly into space last week aboard the space shuttle Columbia. But he was the first space traveler from the independent country of Ukraine.

The previous 18, starting with Pavlo Popovych in August 1962, had flown as Soviet citizens aboard Soviet spacecraft. Col. Kadenyuk had wanted to become a cosmonaut since age 10 when he watched Yuri Gagarin fly in to space in 1961. After graduating from the Chernihiv Higher Aviation School in 1971 he went to Russia for test pilot training. He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1976 and was trained as a crew commander for the Soyuz spacecraft for long-term space station missions. In addition he trained for the Soviet space shuttle Buran, until that program was canceled. After the breakup of the Soviet Union an agreement was reached where an all-Ukrainian crew, commanded by Col. Kadenyuk, would fly to Mir. That mission was eventually canceled due to financial reasons.

Ukraine continues to supply parts for the Russian space program. The Zenit launch vehicles, Kurs automatic rendezvous system and space welding experiments were all developed by Ukrainian companies.

An opportunity born of political ties

Col. Kadenyuk's opportunity to fly aboard the space shuttle was born of political ties - not science. In 1995 President Bill Clinton offered President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine the opportunity to fly a Ukrainian citizen on a U.S. spaceflight.

NASA flies three categories of astronauts on the shuttle: pilots, mission specialists and payload specialists.

The pilots are ex-military test pilots who perform the actual piloting tasks and have overall control of the shuttle's systems.

The mission specialists, as their name implies, are responsible for the experiments and most of the on-orbit activities. Mission specialists are normally the astronauts who operate the shuttle's robot arm and perform spacewalks. The mission specialists include scientists, engineers and military engineers with operations skills. Pilots and mission specialists are NASA employees and career astronauts. In recent years international mission specialists from countries cooperating in the international space station program have also been trained by NASA.

Payload specialists include scientists and engineers flying with their experiments, but this category has also included VIP guests, members of Congress and participants chosen through international cooperative agreements.

While Col. Kadenyuk has the same skills and background as NASA's pilot astronauts, the decision was made to fly him as a payload specialist, performing joint scientific experiments. There were early discussions to fly an advanced version of the Ukrainian welding tool that had been tested aboard the Soviet Salyut 7 space station with a Ukrainian performing a spacewalk along with a U.S. astronaut, but those plans were dropped.

NASA and its Ukrainian counterparts decided that plant growth would be an appropriate simple experiment that could be prepared in the limited time available. Unlike other international programs, the Ukrainians are bringing only their knowledge, without any hardware or funds. NASA spent a total of $1.4 million on the experiment, plus the training costs for two Ukrainian cosmonauts. Existing hardware used to grow plants on previous shuttle missions was used for the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment.

The National Space Agency of Ukraine has selected five Ukrainian cosmonauts. Ukrainian space officials are hoping to participate in the International Space Station program after it is completed in 2003, with the Ukrainians flying aboard American or Russian spacecraft.

Even the announcement of which Ukrainian would get the opportunity to fly aboard the shuttle was a major political event, as the announcement was made on May 16 at the first session of the U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission (the Kuchma-Gore Commission).

Plant growth experiments

Col. Kadenyuk and his back-up, Yaroslav Pustovyi, an electrical engineer, trained at the Institute of Botany at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv to study plant growth experiments.

During the two-week shuttle flight, Col. Kadenyuk's primary responsibility is to conduct the plant experiments, including growing brassica rapa plants. Since the mustard-family plants require bees to pollinate their flowers for reproduction, Col. Kadenyuk must use a dead bee glued to a toothpick to simulate the normal pollination process. He is also responsible for keeping track of the experiment's progress.

To mark the first flight by a Ukrainian citizen in space, Col. Kadenyuk took a Ukrainian flag, a "tryzub," the state emblem of Ukraine, and music by Ukrainian composers. He said, "I am very proud that it has fallen to me to play this role, to be the first cosmonaut of an independent Ukraine. And I will do everything I can to be worthy of this honor."

Philip Chien is an environmental writer based in Florida.

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