President Serdar Berdimuhamedov congratulated Oleg Kononenko, Hero of Turkmenistan, instructor-test cosmonaut, commander of the cosmonaut corps of the “Roscosmos” State Space Corporation on his birthday.

Today Oleg Kononenko is 59 years old.

Taking the opportunity, the head of state wished him good health, long life and family well-being, as well as great success in his professional activities for the benefit of the progress of all mankind, reports the “Neutral Turkmenistan” newspaper today.

Oleg Kononenko was born in 1964 in the Turkmen city of Chardzhou (now Turkmenabad), where he graduated from secondary school № 15, and later worked at the aviation technical base of the Chardzhou United Aviation Squadron. In 1988 he graduated from the Kharkov Aviation Institute with a degree in aircraft engines.

Kononenko spent 736 days in orbit and made five spacewalks.

Oleg Kononenko was awarded the title of Hero of Russia (2009) and Turkmenistan (2019), one of the highest awards of independent neutral Turkmenistan - the Order of the “Star of the President”.

Kononenko spent 736 days in orbit and made five spacewalks.

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.