Oleg Kononenko ( center ) , prior to his latest launch to the International Space Station in September 2023 . Alongside him are NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonaut Nikolai Chub . Roscosmos / NASA

A Russian cosmonaut has just plant a raw phonograph recording for the longest meter spend in space .

Set over five mission , Oleg Kononenko on Sunday has now spend more than 878 day , or nearly two - and - a - one-half years , in compass .

Oleg Kononenko, prior to his latest launch to the International Space Station in September 2023.

Oleg Kononenko (center), prior to his latest launch to the International Space Station in September 2023. Alongside him are NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonaut Nikolai Chub.Roscosmos/NASA

Kononenko , 59 , snatch the platter from compatriot Gennady Padalka , who retired in 2017 follow five trips to outer space .

Currently aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) about 250 mile above Earth , Kononenko , whose latest mission started in September last year , is set to take back to Earth in seven calendar month , with his record go under to extend to 1,110 days in range .

“ I aviate into space to do what I love , not to set records , ” the cosmonaut , who first flew to blank space in 2008,toldRussian word agency Tass . “ I ’ve daydream of and aspired to become a spaceman since I was a baby . ”

Kononenko add : “ That interest — the opportunity to fly into space , to live and knead in orbit — motivates me to go on fly . I am proud of all my accomplishment , but I am more majestic that the record for the entire duration of human stop in space is still hold by a Russian astronaut . ”

He enjoin that video telephone call and messaging enable him to keep in sense of touch with family and friends back on terra firma , adding that whenever he returns to Earth , it always pass to him exactly what he ’s been miss most .

“ It is only upon returning home that the realization come that for one C of days in my absence seizure , the children have been acquire up without father , ” Kononenko say . “ No one will return this time to me . ”

The most days accumulated in place by a NASA astronaut is currently 678 sidereal day by retire American spaceman Peggy Whitson across four charge .

Meanwhile , the book for the tenacious individual stoppage is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov , who lived aboard the Mir infinite station for 437 days and 18 hours in the mid-1990s . American astronaut Frank Rubio recently arrange a young single - stoppage phonograph record for NASA astronautswhen he returned home in Septemberafter logging 371 days in field .