MOSCOW, September 11 Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, together with American astronaut Frank Rubio, beat record for the longest crew stay on the International Space Station.
«At 20.40.11 Moscow time, the cosmonauts will exceed the achievement of Pyotr Dubrov, who from April 2021 to March 2022 completed a flight under the ISS program lasting 355 days 3 hours 45 minutes 21 seconds,» the press told reporters earlier. service of Roscosmos.
The first annual expedition to the station took place in 2015-2016. Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Scott Kelly took part in it; they spent 340 days on the ISS.
After this, Dubrov set a new record together with American Mark Vande Hei. They were delayed at the station because the “film crew” had returned on the ship on which they arrived. Actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko, who filmed footage for the film “Challenge” at the station for 12 days, took their places on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft. Dubrov and Vande Hai were then lowered to Earth by the Soyuz MS-19, on which Shipenko and Peresild arrived.
New record holders Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio arrived at the ISS on September 21, 2022 on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Their expedition was originally planned to last 188 days. However, after the ship’s cooling system depressurized in December 2022, it was decided to send the Soyuz MS-23 in an unmanned version and return the crew on it. The malfunctioning Soyuz MS-22 descended on March 28 with returning equipment not as sensitive to elevated temperatures as humans.
In order to fully take advantage of the resource of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, it was decided to extend the mission of Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio for another few months.
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who were originally part of the crew of Soyuz MS-23, but “lost” their ship to the previous crew, will also spend a year at the station. They will go to the ISS on September 15 on the Soyuz MS-24 together with the American Loral O'Hara. She will return in March 2024, and Kononenko, who has already flown to the ISS four times, will become the first person in the world to spend more than 1000 days.
At the same time, the championship for the longest space flight still belongs to the Soviet and Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent more than 437 days at the Mir station in 1994-1995. in place is Sergei Avdeev, who flew on the Mir for more than 379 days in 1998-1999. Third place so far goes to Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, they spent almost 366 days on the Mir in 1987-1988.