Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko on Wednesday literally set an out-of-this-world record when he became the first human to spend a total of 1,000 days in space.
“Today, at 00:00:20 Moscow time, Roscosmos state corporation cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who currently works at the International Space Station, has booked a record of 1,000 days for the first time in the world in terms of total spaceflight duration,” Roscosmos officials said in a prepared statement.
Kononenko tallied his time in space across five missions, including three as the commander of the International Space Station.
“It takes a special kind of person to achieve such a record,” former NASA medical officer Emmanuel Urquieta told Spaceflight Now. “It’s a long time, but I think that it is one of those data points that I hope we will start getting more of in the future.”
Kononenko’s current mission started with the Sept. 15 launch of a Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft while accompanied by cosmonaut Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.
Kononenko in February surpassed the prior record of cumulative time in space when he completed 878 days on Feb. 4.
Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka previously held the cumulative record for the number of days spent in space.
Kononenko is scheduled to return to Earth with Chub and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson in September.
In Space Daily
Oleg Kononenko
Kononenko returned to Earth with Expedition 17 commander Sergei Volkov, and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott (who launched aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the ISS on 12 October 2008 with the Expedition 18 crew). They landed at 11:37 p.m EDT 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were flown to the Baikonur Cosmodrome by helicopter, and then went on to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow.
Expedition 30/31
On 21 December 2011, Kononenko, along with André Kuipers and Donald Pettit, launched to the International Space Station to join the crew of Expedition 30. He, along with his fellow crewmembers, arrived at the space station on December 23. On 12 February 2012, Kononenko and colleague cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov were scheduled to conduct a six-hour spacewalk outside the ISS. They installed shields on the Zvezda Service Module to protect it from micrometeoroid orbital debris and moved the Strela 1 crane from the Pirs docking compartment to the Poisk Mini Research Module (MRM-2). The two cosmonauts also installed struts on a ladder used by spacewalkers on the Pirs Docking Compartment. As another get-ahead task, they also installed an experiment called Vynoslivost on the Poisk Mini Research Module. As part of the Vynoslivost or “Endurance” experiment, two trays of metal samples would be left exposed on the surface of the Poisk Module. The crew returned to Earth on 1 July 2012.
On 22 July 2015, Kononenko launched to the International Space Station as Soyuz commander, together with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Soyuz-TMA-17M. They spent 5 months on the International Space Station as members of the Expedition 44 and Expedition 45 Crews. The trio returned to Earth in rare night landing on 11 December 2015, when their Soyuz TMA-17M landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan. Kononenko spent 142 days in space on his third mission.
Expedition 57/58/59
Kononenko on EVA to examine the external hull of Soyuz MS-09, standing on a Strela crane, on 11 December 2018
Kononenko launched towards the ISS for the fourth time as Soyuz commander of Soyuz MS-11 on 3 December 2018 as a flight engineer on Expedition 57. He was originally scheduled to be serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 58 and commander on Expedition 59, although due to the launch failure of Soyuz MS-10 on 11 October 2018, the original Expedition 58 commander, Aleksey Ovchinin was no longer aboard the station for Expedition 58, therefore Kononenko commanded both Expedition 58 and Expedition 59. Expedition 58 started on 20 December 2018 with the departure of Soyuz MS-09.
Kononenko and fellow crew members Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques returned to Earth on 24 June 2019, after 203 days 15 hours and 16 minutes in space.
Kononenko always warmly recalls his stay in his motherland – Turkmenistan. On 31 December 2018 Kononenko showed the flag of Turkmenistan and the book “Turkmenistan is the heart of the Great Silk Road” of Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov from the ISS and wishes Happy New Year from the orbit of all Turkmenistan citizens. The astronaut also noted that he has special feelings for the country where he was born and grew up, proud and rejoiced at her achievements.
Expedition 69/70/71
In June 2020, Kononenko announced that he was planned to return to the ISS. In September 2023, he launched aboard Soyuz MS-24. He is assigned for a year mission with his Russian crew member Nikolai Chub that started on September 15, 2023. If the mission lasts 300–365 days, Kononenko will have spent a total of 1,036-1,101 days in space. He broke the world record of 878 days in space held by Gennady Padalka on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC. On June 4, 2024, he became the first person to reach 1,000 days in space.
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