Two cosmonauts and an astronaut returned to Earth on Monday after a very long stay on the International Space Station ISS.
Russians Oleg Kononenko and Nikolaj Tjub have been in space for 374 days in a row. The 60-year-old Kononenko also broke another record; having accumulated the most space days of all astronauts, cosmonauts, and taikonauts in the world.
Kononenko has been in space for 1,111 days – or precisely over three years – during five trips.
The previous record was held by Gennadij Padalka, who made several trips with ISS and the Russian station Mir.
The two Russians were accompanied home by American Tracy Dyson during the journey in the Russian spacecraft Sojuz MS-25. The landing went well in the vast steppes of Kazakhstan.
The record for the longest uninterrupted time in space is still held by cosmonaut Valeri Poljakov, who stayed on the Russian space station Mir for 438 days in 1994-95.
The space station ISS – the size of a football field and with an orbit 40 miles above the Earth's surface – differs from the conflicts on Earth as Russians there cooperate with Americans.
