Two Russian cosmonauts broke the record for the longest continuous stay on the ISS. By mistake, the Americans are also with them – Space – Science and technology

Two Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, broke the record for the longest continuous stay on the International Space Station (ISS). This was announced by the Russian space agency Roskosmos. The previous record was 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes and was held from September 2023 by Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and American astronaut Francisco Rubio.

Čub and Kononenko will extend their record by a few more days, as they are scheduled to return to Earth on September 23, 2024. Ninety-five-year-old Kononenko already holds several space records, including the longest total time spent in space. Until he lands in the Kazakh steppe next week, he will have spent 1,110 days in space during five missions.

Together with Kononenko and Čuba, two American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita (Suni) Williams are also on the ISS for most of their record-breaking stay. They have been on the orbital complex since June and were originally supposed to spend only eight days there. However, due to technical problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which was sent back to Earth without them, the stay will probably be extended until February.