ALMATY, Sept 23: Two Russian cosmonauts landed back on Earth on Monday after a record-breaking stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub spent 374 days in low-Earth orbit at the ISS, the longest time anybody has ever stayed on the station in a continuous stint. During his stay, Kononenko, 60, also set a new record for the longest cumulative time any person has spent in space -- passing the three-year mark with a total of 1,111 days across five trips.
American astronaut Tracy Dyson, who took off for the station in March, also returned to Earth.
The Soyuz MS-25 capsule carrying the three landed in the vast steppe of Kazakhstan at 16:59 local time (1159 GMT), an official broadcast of the landing showed.
The absolute record for the longest unbroken time any human has spent in space belongs to Russia's Valeri Polyakov, who spent 438 days on the Mir space station in 1994-95. —AFP
