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Veteran Cosmonaut Nominated to Fly on Final Shuttle/Mir Mission

Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC                      January 21, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1639)

Eileen M. Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone:  281/483-5111)

RELEASE:  98-10

VETERAN COSMONAUT NOMINATED TO FLY ON FINAL SHUTTLE/MIR MISSION 

     The Russian Space Agency has nominated veteran cosmonaut 
Valeriy Ryumin, Ph.D., to fly as a mission specialist on STS-91, 
set for a May 1998 launch on Discovery. 

     Ryumin, the Program Manager, Russian Phase I Mir-Shuttle 
Program, is training with the STS-91 crew at the Johnson Space 
Center, Houston, TX. He is a space flight veteran, having spent 
362 days in space over three missions.  He was the flight engineer 
on the Soyuz 25 mission, then flew on the Soyuz 32 mission to 
Salyut 6, spending 175 days there from Feb. 25 to Aug. 19, 1979.  
Ryumin's last space flight came as a member of the Soyuz 35 
mission, on which he spent 185 days in space from April 9 to Oct. 
11, 1980. 

     STS-91 will mark Ryumin's first Space Shuttle flight and 
first visit to the Mir space station.  Already named to the crew 
are Commander Charles J. Precourt (Col., USAF), Pilot Dominic L. 
Gorie (Cmdr. USN), and Mission Specialists Wendy B. Lawrence 
(Cdr., USN), Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D., and Janet Kavandi, Ph.D. 

     Mission Specialist Andrew Thomas, Ph.D., will join the STS-91 
crew as he returns from a four-month research mission on Mir.  
Thomas' departure from Mir will bring to an end more than two 
years of a continuous U.S. presence on Mir, beginning with Shannon 
Lucid in March 1996.  Thomas will arrive on Mir as a member of the 
STS-89 crew. 

     The Phase I Shuttle/Mir Program is a precursor to the 
International Space Station, maintaining a continuous American and 
Russian presence in space and developing the procedures and 
hardware required for an international partnership in space. 

     For complete biographical information on the STS-91 crew, or 
any astronaut, see the NASA Internet biography home page at URL: 
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

                            -end-