Ukraine. Preparing for space flight, from April to October 1996 he worked as a researcher at the Department of Phytohormonology of the Kholodny Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He was trained by NASA for a space flight on the US reusable spacecraft Columbia, mission STS-87, as a payload specialist. There were two main candidates for the mission, the other being Yaroslav Pustovyi, a civil Ukrainian scientist in space research. As the more experienced one, Kadeniuk was chosen as the primary candidate for the mission, and Pustovy became Kadenyuk's backup. From 19 November to 5 December 1997, he made a space flight on the American Space Shuttle Columbia, mission STS-87. After the flight, Leonid Kadeniuk continued his Ukrainian space program career in the State Space Agency of Ukraine. During the preparation for space flights and in the process of test work he underwent unique engineering and flight training. He studied the Soyuz, Soyuz-TM, Buran spacecraft, the Salyut orbital station, the Mir orbital complex, and the US Space Shuttle. He participated in the development and testing of aerospace systems, in their sketch and layout design, as well as in flight tests of systems. He flew more than 50 types and modifications of aircraft for various purposes, mainly on fighters, as well as on the American training aircraft Northrop T-38. During the preparation for space flights he was trained to conduct scientific experiments on board spacecraft in various fields: biology, medicine, metrology, ecology, study of natural resources of the Earth from space, geology, astronomy, geobotany. Kadenyuk was appointed Major general of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 1998 and became Deputy Inspector General of the General Military Inspectorate under the President of Ukraine for Aviation and Cosmonautics. 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 had not been politically active. He worked within parliament's Committee on Defense and National Security. In the 2006 parliamentary election, Kadenyuk was No. 3 in the electoral party list of Lytvyn's People's Bloc, but the block won only 2.44% of the popular vote (short of the required 3%) and no seats in the parliament. Kadenyuk is the author of 5 scientific papers. The book "Mission – Space", published in 2009 by Pulsary Publishing House, won first place in