The National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov congratulated the Hero of Turkmenistan, instructor-test cosmonaut, commander of the cosmonaut corps of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation Oleg Kononenko on his birthday.

Today Oleg Kononenko is 59 years old.

Taking the opportunity, the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty wholeheartedly wished him good health, long life and happiness, as well as great success in space exploration.

A native of Turkmenistan, Oleg Kononenko made four flights to the space station, and also broke the record for the total time spent on the ISS, spending 737 days in space. On December 11, 2018, he went into open space for the fifth time to inspect the skin of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, the duration of the exit was 7 hours and 45 minutes. The total duration of the five spacewalks was 32 hours and 13 minutes.

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.

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.

Earlier it was reported that President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov also congratulated Oleg Kononenko on his birthday.