Oleg Kononenko

Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (Олег Дмитриевич Кононенко; Oleg Dmitriýewiç Kononenko; born 21 June 1964) is a Russian cosmonaut.

He has flown to the International Space Station five times as a flight engineer for Expedition 17 aboard Soyuz TMA-12, as a flight engineer on Expedition 30 and commander of Expedition 31 aboard Soyuz TMA-03M, as a flight engineer on Expedition 44 and Expedition 45 aboard Soyuz TMA-17M, and as commander of Expedition 58 and Expedition 59 aboard Soyuz MS-11 and Expedition 70 and Expedition 71 aboard Soyuz MS-24/MS-25.

Kononenko accumulated over days in orbit during his five (including current one-year flight) long duration flights to ISS, which is the longest time in space of any cosmonaut or astronaut.

Gennady Padalka previously held the world record for the most time spent in space at 878 days with Kononenko breaking the record on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC.

Oleg Kononenko was born on 21 June 1964 in Chardzhou, Turkmen SSR (now Türkmenabat, Turkmenistan) to a simple family.

His father Dmitry Ivanovich Kononenko worked as a driver in a freight trucking company, and his mother Taisiya Stepanovna Churakova was a communications operator at the Türkmenabat Airport.

Kononenko graduated from high school No. 15 of Turkmenabat city, where he received excellent marks in the subject of the Turkmen language.

After school, Oleg Kononenko was not able to enter the Kharkov Aviation Institute the first time.

He returned home, worked for a year in the tool shop of the Türkmenabat Airport aviation technical base.

The second attempt was successful.

Kononenko graduated from the N. E. Zhukovskiy Kharkiv Aviation Institute in 1988 as a mechanical engineer.

After graduation, Kononenko worked at the Russian Space Agency's Central Specialized Design Bureau TsSKB-Progress in Kuybishev, starting as an engineer and working his way up to the leading design engineer.

His responsibilities included system design, analysis, and development of spacecraft electrical power systems.

On 29 March 1996, Oleg was selected as a cosmonaut candidate by the Interagency Committee, and from June 1996 to March 1998, he underwent cosmonaut training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and on 20 March 1998, was awarded the title of test cosmonaut by the Interagency Qualification Committee.

In October 1998 he began training as part of the group of cosmonauts selected for the International Space Station (ISS) Program.

From December 2001 through April 2002, Kononenko trained as a backup flight engineer for the Soyuz TM-34 vehicle for the third ISS visiting crew.

From March 2002, through February 2004, he trained as the flight engineer for the Soyuz TMA vehicle and the Expedition 9 and Expedition 11 primary crews.

From March 2004 through March 2006, he trained as part of the group of cosmonauts selected for the ISS program.

In March 2006, Kononenko began training as a flight engineer for the Soyuz TMA-12 vehicle and the Expedition 17 crew.

Kononenko was a flight engineer on both the Expedition 17 mission to the International Space Station, and the Soyuz TMA-12 mission that flew him there.

The crew launched on 8 April 2008, and landed on 24 October 2008.

Kononenko spent 199 days in space.

Kononenko conducted his first spacewalk on 10 July 2008 when he ventured into space from the Pirs docking compartment airlock of the ISS.

He and cosmonaut Volkov inspected their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft and retrieved a pyro bolt from it.

This spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 18 minutes.

On 15 July 2008 Kononenko again went outside from Pirs to conduct his second spacewalk.

Kononenko and Volkov installed one experiment and retrieved another.

They also continued to outfit the station's exterior, including the installation of a docking target on the Zvezda service module.

The spacewalk was in Russian Orlan suits and Kononenko wore an Orlan suit with blue stripes.

The spacewalk lasted 5 hours and 54 minutes.

Kononenko returned to Earth with Expedition 17 commander Sergei Volkov, and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott (who launched aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the ISS on 12 October 2008 with the Expedition 18 crew).

They landed at 11:37 p.m EDT 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.

They were flown to the Baikonur Cosmodrome by helicopter, and then went on to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow.

On 21 December 2011, Kononenko, along with André Kuipers and Donald Pettit, launched to the International Space Station to join the crew of Expedition 30.

He, along with his fellow crewmembers, arrived at the space station on December 23.

On 12 February 2012, Kononenko and colleague cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov were scheduled to conduct a six-hour spacewalk outside the ISS.

They installed shields on the Zvezda Service Module to protect it from micrometeoroid orbital debris and moved the Strela 1 crane from the Pirs docking compartment to the Poisk Mini Research Module (MRM-2).

The two cosmonauts also installed struts on a ladder used by spacewalkers on the Pirs Docking Compartment.

As another get-ahead task, they also installed an experiment called Vynoslivost on the Poisk Mini Research Module.

As part of the Vynoslivost or "Endurance" experiment, two trays of metal samples would be left exposed on the surface of the Poisk Module.