The Blog of Harald

Despite disapproval from the Russians, “Yuri Malenchenko married Ekaterina Dmitriev”:http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2040806 while he was on ISS and she was in a meeting room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

bq. Texas law allows one — or even both — of a couple to be absent from the ceremony as long as the proper affidavits are filed.

[…]

bq. Malenchenko and Lu wore their standard fare blue-gray flight suits, augmented with bow ties and cumber bunds.

The wedding almost didn’t happen. Yuri’s Russian superiors initially denied his request to marry an American; Russian law doesn’t allow marriages where one partner is absent; and ” the nuptials were definitely not part of the official flight plan of the space station”.

bq. In the end, Dmitriev said, Russian officials allowed the marriage, but said it won’t be official in Russia.

bq. The couple plan a religious wedding in Russia next June. “I want it to be when people can get there and it’s not so cold,” Dmitriev said.