Russian astronaut breaks record for longest stay in space

Roskosmos said cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko broke the record at 08:30 GMT with more than 878 days in space. Kononenko is expected to reach 1,000 days in space on June 5 and reach 1,110 days by the end of September.

Russian astronaut sets record for longest stay in space photo 1 — Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko on a bus shortly before departure to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on September 15, 2023. Photo: Reuters

"I flew into space to do what I love, not to set records," cosmonaut Kononenko told TASS news agency in an interview from the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits Earth at an altitude of 423 km.

"I am proud of all my achievements, but what makes me prouder is that the record for the total time spent by humans in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut," said Mr. Kononenko.

Roscosmos said the 59-year-old surpassed the old record set by compatriot Gennady Padalka before retiring in 2017, who accumulated a total of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds in space.

Cosmonaut Kononenko said he regularly exercises to counteract the physical effects of the vacuum environment. In space, he did not feel deprived or isolated, but he said: "Only when I returned home did I realize that for hundreds of days I was absent, the children grew up without a father. No one will give me back that time."

Astronauts can now text and video call to stay in touch with loved ones, he said. But technological advances have made new spaceflights more complex, making it harder to prepare for each mission.

Kononenko dreamed of space travel since childhood. He enrolled in a technical institute before undergoing cosmonaut training. His first space flight was in 2008. His current flight to the ISS is scheduled to launch in 2023 on the Soyuz MS-24.

The ISS is one of the few international projects where the US and Russia have continued to cooperate closely since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine. In December 2023, Roscosmos said its astronaut exchange program with NASA to the ISS had been extended until 2025.

In the early years of the space race, the Soviet Union terrified the West by being the first to launch a satellite into Earth orbit in 1957, and then Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in 1961.

Hoai Phuong (according to Reuters, TASS)

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