Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk (, 28 January 1951 – 31 January 2018) was the first astronaut of independent Ukraine who flew into outer space. He flew on NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as part of the international mission STS-87. Kadenyuk held the rank of major general in the Ukrainian Air Force. He was Deputy of Ukraine of the 4th convocation, People's Ambassador of Ukraine, Hero of Ukraine, President of the Aerospace Society of Ukraine, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and Chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, Honorary Doctor of Chernivtsi National University. Biography Leonid Kadenyuk was born on 28 January 1951 in the village of Klishkivtsi, Khotyn district, Chernivtsi region in a family of rural teachers. In 1967, after graduating from high school with a silver medal, he entered the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. After graduating from the Aviation School in 1971 and receiving a diploma of a pilot-engineer in the specialty "Piloting and operation of aircraft" he worked as a pilot-instructor. Kadenyuk was a Soviet military pilot. He began his service in the Soviet Air Forces and was selected in 1976 for the Soviet Cosmonaut Corps. In 1977 he graduated from the Test Pilot Training Center. He received a diploma and qualification "test pilot". In 1977–1979, he underwent general space training and qualified as a test astronaut. Between 1984 and 1988 Kadenyuk was a test pilot of the State Research Institute of the USSR Air Force. In 1989 he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute – Faculty of Aircraft. Between 1988 and 1990 he underwent engineering and flight training in the Buran program as commander of the planned Soviet reusable spacecraft. He was removed from a team of test pilots of Buran due to marital issues. He was allowed to rejoin the Cosmonaut Detachment several years later. He took part in working out the glide path of descent for landing the spacecraft Buran using MiG-31 and MiG-25 aircraft. Between 1990 and 1992, under the full program, he was trained as the commander of the transport ship Soyuz-TM. With the break-up of the Soviet Union, Kadenyuk remained in the Russian Space Forces and adopted Ukrainian citizenship. In 1995, during the preparation of the first Ukrainian space mission, he volunteered to take part and returned to his homeland. In 1995 he was selected to the group of astronauts of the National Space Agency of