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full screen Oleg Kononenko has returned after 374 days aboard the ISS. The 60-year-old cosmonaut broke the record when he spent five trips in space for a total of 1,111 days. Photo: Russian Roscosmos Via AP/TT
The record for the longest time in space has now been beaten by Russian cosmonaut Kononenko with a total of 1,111 days in space.
Now he is home again.
Two cosmonauts and an astronaut returned to Earth on Monday after a very long stay on the International Space Station ISS.
Russians Oleg Kononenko and Nikolay Tyub have been in space for 374 days straight. The 60-year-old Kononenko also broke another record; to have accumulated the most space days of any astronaut, cosmonaut and taikonaut in the world.
Kononenko has been in space for 1,111 days – or just over three years – over five trips.
The previous record was held by Gennadij Padalka, who made several trips with the ISS and the Russian station Mir.
The two Russians were joined home by the American Tracy Dyson during the journey in the Russian space capsule Soyuz MS-25. The landing went well in the vast steppes of Kazakhstan.
The record for longest unbroken time in space is still held by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who stayed on the Russian space station Mir for 438 days in 1994-95.
The space station ISS – as big as a football field and with an orbit 40 miles above the Earth’s surface – is different from the conflicts on Earth where Russians cooperate with Americans.