59-year-old Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko achieved a historic milestone this past weekend by spending more than 878 days and 12 hours in space.
Kononenko is currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) situated in the low earth orbit.
On June 4, 2023, he is set to become the first cosmonaut to have spent more than 1,000 days in space.
The Russian cosmonaut should have completed 1,110 days in orbital missions by the time he returns to earth on September 23, 2024.
The new record surpassed that of his fellow Russian Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who set the previous record of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 48 seconds in 2015.
Kononenko’s record also exceeded that of American Astronaut Frank Rubio who was hailed last year as the first National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut to have spent the longest time in ISS than any other NASA astronaut before him.
Rubio spent a total of 371 days aboard the space station before returning to earth in September.
