The 59-year-old has traveled outside of Earth’s atmosphere for a total of about two and a half years. The Russian expressed pride in his accomplishment, saying that since he was a young child, he had dreamed of exploring space.
On Sunday morning, the 59-year-old recorded more than 878 days and 12 hours of total time spent outside of Earth’s atmosphere, or almost 2.5 years.
On board the International Space Station (ISS), where he has visited five times since 2008, Mr. Kononenko commemorated the achievement.
“I don’t fly into space to break records; I do it to do what I love.” Since I was a young child, I have wanted to become a cosmonaut.
He told the Russian news agency TASS, “That interest – the opportunity to fly into space, to live and work in orbit – motivates me to continue flying.”
Mr Kononenko went on to say: “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.”
On June 5, the cosmonaut is anticipated to have spent 1,000 days in space overall.
He will have spent 1,110 days in space by the end of September, or little more than three years.
Alongside fellow Russian Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, he launched on September 15, 2018, to begin his current mission to the International Space Station.
“This time, no one will come back to me.”
Mr. Kononenko claimed he did not feel “deprived or isolated” because he regularly exercises while on board and makes video chats to family members back home.
However, he went on, saying, “It is only when I get back home that I realize the kids have been growing up without a dad for hundreds of days while I’ve been away. This time, nobody will come back to me.”
Mr. Kononenko is the most recent in a long series of pioneering cosmonauts, which includes 1961’s first man-in-space Yuri Gagarin.
His accomplishment surpasses the record held by Gennady Padalka, a fellow citizen, who spent 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 48 seconds in space in 2015.
