Hero of Turkmenistan and Russia, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko can break the record for the total time spent by an earthling in space. As reports RIA Novosti with reference to “Roskosmos”, this will happen next year.

“The commander of the “Roscosmos” cosmonaut detachment, Oleg Kononenko, is recovering into space. He now has a total of more than 736 days outside the Earth”, the state corporation said in a message on the VK social network.

The world record for the total duration of a person's stay in orbit belongs to the Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka - 878 days 11 hours 29 minutes 36 seconds (for 5 flights). It was registered by the International Aviation Federation (FAI) in September 2015.

In April of this year, Oleg Kononenko said that he was preparing for his fifth flight to the International Space Station, which he planned for March 2023. Kononenko will fly to the ISS with fellow Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral Ashley O'Hara on Soyuz MS-23.

Oleg Kononenko was born in 1964 in the Turkmen city of Chardzhou (now Turkmenabat), where he graduated from secondary school № 15. In 1988 he graduated from the Kharkov Aviation Institute with a degree in aircraft engines.

In 2008, Kononenko made his first space flight to the International Space Station (ISS). In total, he made four flights to the space station. On December 11, 2018, Kononenko went into outer space for the fifth time to inspect the skin of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, the duration of the spacewalk was 7 hours and 45 minutes. The total duration of the five spacewalks was 32 hours and 13 minutes.

Hero of Russia (2009) and Turkmenistan (2019) Oleg Kononenko is a holder of one of the highest awards of independent neutral Turkmenistan - the Order of the “Star of the President”.