Status: Retired
3/30/1957 –
Nationality: Russian
Type: Government
First Flight: 10/3/1994
Last Flight: 5/15/1997
Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova (Russian: Елена Владимировна Кондакóва; born March 30, 1957) was the third Soviet/Russian female cosmonaut to travel to space and the first woman to make a long-duration spaceflight. Her first trip into space was on Soyuz TM-20 on October 4, 1994. She returned to Earth on March 22, 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 female in space until her successor cosmonaut Elena Serova flew to the International Space Station (ISS) on 25 September 2014.
Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) - RFSA
- Type: Government
- Abbreviation: RFSA
- Administration: Administrator: Yuri Borisov
- Founded: 1992
- Launchers: Soyuz
- Spacecraft: Soyuz
- Country: RUS
The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of the Russian Federation and general aerospace research. Soyuz has many launch locations the Russian sites are Baikonur, Plesetsk and Vostochny however Ariane also purchases the vehicle and launches it from French Guiana.