Russian cosmonaut breaks space record

On his fifth mission to the International Space Station, Oleg Kononenko has already spent 878 days away from Earth. He will complete the 1,100-day mark upon his return, scheduled for September. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set this Sunday (04/02) a new record for staying in outer space, surpassing the mark of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds from its predecessor, the Russian Guennady Padalka.

Kononenko, who has been on the International Space Station (ISS) since September, broke the record at 5:30:08 (Brasília time).

The 59-year-old Russian is on his fifth mission on the orbital platform. His return to Earth is scheduled for September 23, when he will have spent a total of 1,110 days in space. The thousand-day mark will be reached on June 5th.

To the Russian news agency TASS, Kononenko said that, in the future, man should build a station that is “a real space home”, bigger and more comfortable, and less dependent on Earth. To this end, he recommended improving water regeneration, oxygen supply and space debris recycling systems.

The Russian first flew to the station in April 2008, as part of the 16th expedition, and has since completed six spacewalks, totaling 39 hours and 54 minutes.

Padalka, the now surpassed record holder, retired in 2017, at the age of 58, after realizing he had no chance of participating in a sixth mission to the ISS and reaching a thousand days in space.

“It is a shame. I am always sad when a prepared, experienced and motivated man, with a long career, leaves the ranks” of cosmonauts, said Sergei Krikalev, director of the pilot program at Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, at the time.

Padalka surpassed the record held by Sergei Krikalev, of 803 days in space, on June 29, 2015, increasing the mark to 878 days during his fifth mission.

Life in space

Kononenko said he exercised regularly to combat the physical effects of “insidious” weightlessness, but realized what he had lost in space when he returned to Earth.

“I don’t feel deprived or isolated,” he said. “It's only when I return home that I realize that for hundreds of days in my absence, the children grew up without a daddy. No one is going to give me that time back.”

He said cosmonauts can now use video calls and messaging to stay in touch with relatives, but preparing for each new space flight has become more difficult due to technological advances.

“The cosmonaut profession is becoming more complicated. Systems and experiments are becoming more complicated. Preparing hasn’t gotten any easier,” she said. Kononenko dreamed of going to space as a child and enrolled in an engineering institute before undergoing cosmonaut training.

The ISS is one of the few international projects on which the United States and Russia still cooperate closely. In December, Roscosmos announced that a joint flight program with NASA to the ISS had been extended until 2025.

Relations in other areas between the two countries have been disrupted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, to which Washington responded by sending arms to Kiev and imposing successive rounds of sanctions on Moscow.

bl (EFE, Reuters)