The bride blew the groom a kiss. He blew one back - from about 240 miles above terra firma. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko didn't let the fact that he's living aboard the international space station stop him from marrying his earthbound bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev, in the first wedding ever conducted from space. The couple wed Sunday before family and friends in a private ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Malenchenko took part via video. Texas law allows weddings in which one of the parties is not present. "It was very sweet,'' said Joanne Woodward, the wedding planner. A life-size cutout of the groom greeted guests at the wedding reception, at a restaurant decorated with silver stars and mannequins dressed as astronauts. The honeymoon will have to wait until after Malenchenko, who wore a bow tie with his blue space suit, returns to Earth in late October. They plan a Russian Orthodox wedding sometime next year.

The two met at a social gathering five years ago and began dating last year. He is a Russian air force colonel who stayed aboard space station Mir for four months in 1994. She left Russia for the United States with her parents when she was 3 and lives in Houston. After their relationship began, Malenchenko, 41, returned to Russia to train for his upcoming space mission, but the two continued their courtship via telephone. The cosmonaut proposed in December. Because Malenchenko was preparing for his mission and there was no time to plan a wedding, they decided to get married while he was still in space. The couple was issued a marriage license July 17.

Source : The Associated Press