of the Space Station. 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. 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
Sergey 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.
Expedition 30/31 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. The crew returned to Earth on 1 July 2012.
Expedition 44/45 On 22 July 2015, Kononenko launched to the International Space Station as Soyuz commander, together with NASA astronaut
Kjell Lindgren and
Kimiya Yui from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on
Soyuz-TMA-17M. They spent 5 months on the International Space Station as members of the
Expedition 44 and
Expedition 45 crews. The trio returned to Earth in rare night landing on 11 December 2015, when their
Soyuz TMA-17M landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan. Kononenko spent 142 days in space on his third mission.
Expedition 57/58/59 , standing on a
Strela crane, on 11 December 2018 Kononenko launched towards the ISS for the fourth time as Soyuz commander of
Soyuz MS-11 on 3 December 2018 as a flight engineer on
Expedition 57. He was originally scheduled to be serving as a flight engineer on
Expedition 58 and commander on
Expedition 59, although due to the launch failure of
Soyuz MS-10 on 11 October 2018, the original Expedition 58 commander,
Aleksey Ovchinin was no longer aboard the station for Expedition 58, therefore Kononenko commanded both Expedition 58 and Expedition 59. Expedition 58 started on 20 December 2018 with the departure of
Soyuz MS-09. Kononenko and fellow crew members
Anne McClain and
David Saint-Jacques returned to Earth on 24 June 2019, after 203 days 15 hours and 16 minutes in space. Kononenko always warmly recalls his stay in his motherland -
Turkmenistan. On 31 December 2018 Kononenko showed the
flag of Turkmenistan and the book "Turkmenistan is the heart of the Great Silk Road" of
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov from the ISS and wishes Happy New Year from the orbit of all Turkmenistan citizens. The astronaut also noted that he has special feelings for the country where he was born and grew up, proud and rejoiced at her achievements.
Expedition 69/70/71 In June 2020, Kononenko announced that he was planned to return to the ISS. In September 2023, he launched aboard
Soyuz MS-24. He was assigned for a year mission with his Russian crew member
Nikolai Chub that started on September 15, 2023. As the mission lasted 374 days, Kononenko spent a total of 1,111 days in space by the time he returned to Earth on
Soyuz MS-25. He broke the world record of 878 days in space held by
Gennady Padalka on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC. He later became the first person to stay 900, 1,000, and 1,100 days in space on 25 February 2024, 4 June 2024, and 12 September 2024 respectively. == Personal life ==