Cosmonaut spends record time of 2.5 YEARS in space and months after new shock milestone
RUSSIAN cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko has set a new world record for the longest time spent in space.
The 59-year-old has spent a total of 878 days and 12 hours (or almost two and a half years) outside Earth's atmosphere.
Kononenko reached the milestone aboard the International Space Station on Sunday morning, while on his fifth mission to the orbital outpost.
The previous record holder was cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who spent 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds in space on five missions between 1998 and 2015.
Kononenko will stay there until September 2024.
Once he returns to Earth, Kononenko will have clocked 1,110 days – just over three years – and will be the first human to spend 1,000 days in space.
“I fly into space to do what I love, not to set records. I have dreamed and aspired to be a cosmonaut since I was a child.
“That interest – the possibility of flying into space, of living and working in orbit – motivates me to keep flying,” he told Russian news agency TASS.
Kononenko added: “I am proud of all my achievements, but I am even prouder that the record for the total duration of human stay in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut.”
The cosmonaut's current journey to the ISS began on September 15 last year together with Roscosmos colleague Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara.
Kononenko said video calls with his family and regular exercise on board kept him from feeling “deprived or isolated.”
However, he has felt the time away from his children.
But he added: 'Only when I get home do I realize that the children have grown up without daddy for hundreds of days in my absence.
“No one will come back to me this time.”
How does space affect the body?
The time Kononenko has already spent – and will spend – in space takes a significant toll on the human body.
The typical duration of an ISS flight is roughly six months, which even then has enormous physical consequences, such as:
- Redistribution of fluid around the body due to long periods of weightlessness
- Loss of bone density in critical areas such as the lower limbs and spine
- Muscle atrophy
People in space lose between 1 and 1.5 percent of their bone mineral density.
Although ISS astronauts exercise an average of two hours a day, muscle loss in space is unavoidable.
It takes several years to recover from a six-month space flight.
Long after astronauts return to Earth, lingering health problems may persist, including:
- Higher risk of bone fractures
- Increase in erectile dysfunction
- Cancer risk due to radiation exposure