Two cosmonauts have set the record for the most days spent continuously aboard the International Space Station (ISS), surpassing the previous record holders, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, and Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev.
On Friday, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub broke the record for the longest-duration stay on the ISS, according to Russian state-run media outlet TASS. The pair launched to Earth orbit on September 15, 2023, as part of the Expedition 71 crew, and are scheduled to return to Earth on September 23, spending a total of 374 days on board the space station.
The previous record holders are U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio, and Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev. The trio spent a total of 370 days on board the ISS due to a faulty Soyuz spacecraft that led to them being stranded in space and extending their six-month long mission to over a year.
This time around, no spacecraft glitches are to blame for the new record, and one of the cosmonauts is no stranger to time spent floating in microgravity. Aside from his consecutive days in orbit record, the 59-year-old Kononenko also recently became the first person to reach 1,000 cumulative days spent in space, Spaceflight Now reported.
After his current mission wraps up, Kononenko will have spent a total of 1,111 days in space. With all those days in orbit, Kononenko has far surpassed the previous record holder, cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who logged more than 878 days in space.
Kononenko’s ongoing mission on board the ISS is his fifth flight, and third time as commander of the space station. “I fly into space to do my favourite thing, not to set records,” Kononenko told TASS in an interview from the ISS, Reuters reported. “I am proud of all my achievements, but I am more proud that the record for the total duration of human stay in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut.”
He is referring to the record of longest overall continuous stay in space, which is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov. The cosmonaut spent 437 consecutive days onboard the former Mir space station between 1994 and 1995.
The inhabitants of the ISS help scientists learn more about the effects the microgravity environment has on the human body. As NASA and other space agencies plan for future missions to the Moon and Mars, data gathered from the select few humans who have been to space remains crucial in developing ways to mitigate the dangers of long-duration spaceflight.
More: ‘I Would Have Declined’: NASA’s Frank Rubio Reflects on Unintended Year in Space
