Frequent flyer of space Oleg Kononenko will go on his sixth flight to the ISS

The acting director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yu. A. Gagarin", Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko has been appointed commander of the Soyuz MS-31 spacecraft as part of the ISS-77 mission. This was reported by TASS with reference to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (part of Roscosmos). For the 61-year-old cosmonaut, this will be his sixth flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

In addition to Kononenko, another Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin, was included in the main crew of the ISS-77, which will fly on the Soyuz MS-31. This will be his second flight to the ISS, but the first time on a Russian ship. Two years ago, Grebenkin became a member of the Crew-8 crew on the Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the NASA and Roscosmos cross-flight program, and now he has been assigned the role of flight engineer of the Soyuz MS-31.

Kononenko is the most experienced active Russian cosmonaut. From September 2023 to September 2024, he flew his fifth mission to the ISS. During this flight, he became the first cosmonaut to have spent a total of 1,000 days in space. Upon returning from orbit, his total flight time amounted to almost 1111 days. In August, Kononenko announced that he had resumed training and started preparing for a new flight.

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