birth_place mission nationality article_title birth_date selection rank insignia image time name type occupation
klishkivtsi , chernivtsi oblast , ukraine sts-87 ukrainian leonid kadeniuk
 28 january 1951 1976 air force group 6 major general , uaf 30px leonid kadenyuk.jpg 15d 16h 34 m leonid kostyantynovych kadenyuk soviet / ukraine cosmonaut test pilot
leonid kadeniuk

leonid kostyantynovych kadenyuk -lrb- -rrb- , born 28 january 1951 in klishkivtsi , chernivtsi oblast of the ukrainian ssr -rrb- is the first astronaut of independent ukraine .
he made his flight on nasa 's columbia in 1997 as part of the international mission sts-87 .
kadeniuk holds the rank of ukrainian air force major general .
kadeniuk was a career soviet military pilot .
he began his service in the soviet air force and was selected in 1976 for the soviet cosmonaut corps .
with the break-up of the soviet union , kadeniuk remained in the russian space forces and adopted russian citizenship .
in 1995 , during the preparation of the first ukrainian space mission , he volunteered to take part and returned to his homeland .
there were two main candidates for the mission , the other being yaroslav pustovyi , a civil ukrainian scientist in space research .
kadeniuk was chosen as better-trained and accustomed to space mission organization .
after the flight , leonid kadeniuk continued his ukrainian space program career in the nkau .
in the 2002 parliamentary election , he was elected to the verkhovna rada in the list of pro-kuchma united ukraine bloc .
later , kadeniuk joined the `` trudova ukrayina - industrialists and entrepreneurs '' faction , but has n't been politically active .
he worked within parliament 's committee on defense and national security .
in the 2006 parliamentary election , kadenyuk was # 3 in the electoral party list of lytvyn 's people 's bloc , but the block won only 2.44 % of the popular vote -lrb- short of the required 3 % -rrb- and no seats in the parliament .
