Yelena Kondakova | |
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Елена Кондакова | |
![]() Kondakova in 1997 | |
Born | |
Status | Retired |
Occupation | Politician |
Awards | Hero of the Russian Federation |
Space career | |
Roscosmos cosmonaut | |
Time in space | 178d 10h 41 m[1] |
Selection | 1989 |
Missions | Soyuz TM-20,[1] STS-84[1] |
Mission insignia | ![]() ![]() |
Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova (Russian: Елена Владимировна Кондакóва; born 30 March 1957) is the third Soviet or Russian female cosmonaut to travel to space and the first woman to make a long-duration spaceflight.[2] Her first trip into space was on Soyuz TM-20 on 4 October 1994. She returned to Earth on 22 March 1995, after a five-month stay at the Mir space station. Kondakova's second flight was as a mission specialist on the United States Space Shuttle Atlantis during mission STS-84 in May 1997. She was the last Russian woman in space until her successor cosmonaut Elena Serova flew to the International Space Station (ISS) on 25 September 2014.