Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko broke the previous world record for total time spent in space on Sunday. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said he remained in space on the International Space Station (ISS) for a total of more than 878 days.

Kononenko, who is also commander of cosmonauts at Roscosmos, surpassed the previous record of his compatriot Gennady Padalka. The 59-year-old achieved the new best time on Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. The next space milestone is expected for June 5th: By then the cosmonaut will have spent a total of 1,000 days in space. His trip is planned until September 23rd.

Kononenko, who first flew to the ISS in 2008, is part of a long-term expedition that lasts from September last year to next September. "I'm going into space to do my favorite thing, not to set records," the astronaut said in an interview with Tass news agency from the ISS, where he is in an orbit about 423 km from Earth.

Russian records

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And yet the record obviously pleases him. "I am proud of all my achievements," said Kononenko, "but I am even more proud that the record for the total length of time a human has spent in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut."

Russia's records in space have a long tradition. During the Soviet era, the country shocked the West in the early years of the space race when it launched the first satellite into orbit - Sputnik 1 - in 1957. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space in 1961.

But after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian space program struggled with massive funding shortages and corruption. Officials under President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly vowed to reverse the decline of Russia's space programs, although officials and space analysts say serious problems remain.

“The systems and experiments are becoming more and more complicated”

Kononenko said he exercised regularly to counteract the physical effects of weightlessness. But it was only when he began to return home that he understood how much life he had missed. He doesn't feel disadvantaged or isolated. »Only when I return home do I realize that the children have grown up without their dad for hundreds of days while I was away. Nobody will give me this time back.«

He said the cosmonauts can now stay in touch with their relatives through video calls and messaging. At the same time, however, technical progress is making preparation for each new space flight more difficult. "The systems and experiments are becoming more and more complicated."

The ISS is one of the few international projects where the United States and Russia still work closely together. In December, Roscosmos said it had extended a program with NASA for cruise flights to the ISS until 2025.

kig/Reuters