On Monday, 11 September, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin will break the record for the longest stay on the International Space Station (ISS), said Roscosmos State Corporation.

According to the state corporation, this record is currently held by Russian Pyotr Dubrov, who was on the ISS for 355 days, 3 hours 45 minutes and 21 seconds.

Prokopyev and Petelin arrived at the space station last September and planned to stay there until March, but due to a malfunction of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft’s thermal radiator, it was decided to extend their stay until the 27th.

Although both cosmonauts will set the record for the longest stay on the ISS, the absolute record for the longest stay in space since 1995 belongs to Russian Valery Polyakov, who lived on the dismantled Mir orbital complex for 437 days 17 hours 58 minutes and 17 seconds, as reported by Prensa Latina, a partner of TV BRICS.

It should be noted that all of Russia’s BRICS partners are currently actively developing their own space research programmes and honouring their cosmonauts who have made a great contribution to the development of science.

Photo: istockphoto.com