Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft in September 2023, will spend a year in Earth orbit, which will allow him to become the first person in history to spend more than 1,000 days in total in space, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said on Monday.
Kononenko has already made four space flights with a total duration of more than 736 days. The current record for the number of days spent in space is also held by a Russian cosmonaut, Gennady Padalka, who spent more than 878 days in space.
"The main crew of the 70th and 71st long-duration expeditions includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara. They will go to the ISS in September 2023 aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft," the agency told reporters, adding that Kononenko and Chub will remain at the station until September 2024.
Roscosmos also announced that a female Belarusian cosmonaut will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and US astronaut Tracy Dyson on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft to the ISS in March 2024.