web counter
LEXO PA REKLAMA!

SHKARKO APP

App Store
Google Play

Two Russians set record for longest stay on ISS

2024-09-21 09:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
Two Russians set record for longest stay on ISS
Oleg Kononenko, one of two Russians who set a record for the longest continuous stay on the International Space Station (ISS), according to the Russian Space Agency. Source: Reuters

Two Russians on Friday set a record for the longest nonstop stay on the International Space Station (ISS), according to Russia's space agency, Roskosmos.

Roskosmos said Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub broke the previous record of 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes, which was set in September 2023 by Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin, and American Francisco Rubio.

Chub and Kononenko will stay a few more days before returning to Earth as scheduled on September 23.

Kononenko, 59, holds other records for duration in space, including the longest cumulative time in space: 1,110 days over five missions by the time he lands in Kazakhstan later this month.

The NASA astronaut with the longest cumulative days in space, Peggy Whitson, ranks eighth internationally. Whitson has been in space for a total of 675 days on three long missions and one short mission.

Two American astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are currently on the ISS, have coincidentally been on the space station for most of the Russians' record stay.

After NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and problems with the reaction controls in the astronauts' Starliner space capsule, the decision was made to return the capsule without Wilmore and Williams and keep them on the ISS for their safety.

NASA said the return of the Starliner without a crew allowed it and its manufacturer, Boeing, to continue gathering test data without posing a risk to the crew.

NASA has taken into account that the astronauts' extended stay means they will not be on Earth for the US presidential election in November. The two astronauts said at a press conference on September 13 that they will still have the opportunity to vote in the election and will use satellites to send their votes back to Earth.

The two American astronauts are expected to return to Earth in February./ REL





Lajmet e fundit nga