Russian cosmonaut sets world record for time spent in space

According to Roscosmos, Kononenko officially broke the record at 8:30:08 (GMT) on February 4. He is expected to reach 1,000 days in space on June 5, and 1,110 days by the end of September.

This is Kononenko's fifth space flight. He flew into space last year on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft.

The previous record belonged to Gennady Padalka - whose total time in space was 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds.

“I went into space to do what I love, not to set records,” Kononenko told TASS in an interview from the International Space Station (ISS), where he is orbiting about 423 km above Earth.

"I am proud of all my achievements, but I am even prouder that the record for the total time a human has spent in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut."

The Soviet Union stunned the West in the early years of the space race when it became the first country to launch a satellite into Earth orbit - Sputnik 1 - in 1957. Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin then became the first human to travel into space in 1961.

But after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia's space program struggled with a severe lack of funding.

Life in space

Kononenko says he exercises regularly to counteract the physical effects of weightlessness.

"I didn't feel deprived or isolated. But when I returned home, I realized that during the hundreds of days I was absent, the children grew up without a father. No one can give me back this time."

Astronauts can now use video calls and texting to stay in touch with loved ones, but getting ready for each space flight has become more difficult due to technological advances, he said.

"The astronaut profession is becoming more and more complex. The systems and experiments are becoming more and more complex. I repeat, the preparation is not getting easier," he said.

Kononenko dreamed of space travel as a child and attended a technical academy before undergoing cosmonaut training. His first space flight was in 2008.

The ISS is one of the few international projects where the US and Russia still cooperate closely. Relations in other areas between the two countries have been strained since the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted nearly two years ago, prompting Washington to respond by sending weapons to Kiev and imposing a series of sanctions on Moscow.

(Source: Tien Phong)

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