Hero of Turkmenistan, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko is preparing to break the record for the duration of his stay in space, RIA Novosti reports with reference to Roscosmos.
In October 2023, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, will travel on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft to the International Space Station and spend almost a year on it. Thus, Oleg Kononenko can become the first person who has been in space for a total of more than 1000 days.
Kononenko spent 736 days in orbit and made five spacewalks.
Oleg Kononenko was born in the city of Turkmenabat in 1964, where he graduated from high school and later worked at the aviation technical base of the Chardjou united air squadron. He was awarded the title of Hero of Turkmenistan and the gold medal Altyn Aý, was awarded the "Order of the President" for services to the Turkmen state.