Russian cosmonaut sets record for most time in space – more than 878 days

[mikpanko]

There seems to be some confusion in the comments. The cosmonaut didn't spend 878 days in space continuously but rather over 5 separate missions starting from 2008.

And he will reach 1110 days once he returns from the current mission in September.

[huhtenberg]

Important note:

878 days in total, across all his expeditions. Not continuous.

The longest continuous stay of 473 days was by Valeri Polyakov on board the Mir station in 1994-95.

[aconst]

I am pretty sure this guy came to my french island in 1998 or 1999 when I was last year of high school (if it was not him, it was another cosmonaut who had done a very long stay, but I am pretty sure it was him). He came to visit my high school to give a talk. A close classmate, who was half Russian and could speak well the language, translated for us. Kind of cool :D

[houseofzeus]

That first leg day is gonna be a real burner.

[Abekkus]

I had previously read that there was a point of no return for walking atrophy, somewhere before the two-year mark. Hope the medicine has improved, for this astrionaut's sake.

[le-mark]

Sitting at a desk for several years has wrecked me, I can’t imagine what zero g would be like to recover from.

[practice9]

Here is an interesting and relevant context: there is a huge amount of evidence that Roscosmos is taking an active part in the war effort. There is a great source about it from Eric Berger of Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/06/it-appears-that-roscos...

Take that into account when reading news made from state press-releases like the one in the post.

P.S.: For the full context, the Roscosmos ex-boss also has had his own private military company for a while.

[sparrowInHand]

I wish they would go into more detail regarding the health effects. Eyesight, bone density, cancher risks, etc. I think it helps to be older though, slow cell divide and regeneration, slow down even "aggressive cancers"

[pavel_lishin]

Do check out this study - NASA lucked out in having twin astronauts, one of whom spent nearly a year on the ISS while his brother stayed on Earth.

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/twins-study/

[lkdfjlkdfjlg]

> I think it helps to be older though, slow cell divide and regeneration, slow down even "aggressive cancers"

Are you suggesting that older people are less likely to get cancer?

My understanding was that cancer was mostly driven by the immune system's mechanisms for killing rogue cells failing. The assumption is that there's always cells doing things they shouldn't, it's when you fail to stop them it becomes a problem.

[mym1990]

Currently reading 'A City On Mars', which takes a deeper dive into the effects of space on our bodies, as well as other caveats of settling beyond Earth(birth, disease, political systems, etc...). It is not comprehensive and that is because data is still very, very sparse for space operations.

[the-mitr]

Though dated (1964) this research report has some articles that might interest you

https://archive.org/details/parin-ed.-aviation-and-space-med...

[deadalus]

Astronauts age slower and grow taller in space.

[toomuchtodo]

The health issues they experience are substantial as duration increases.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9818606/

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230927-what-a-long-term...

[rightbyte]

Due you mean in the Einstein "twin paradox" sense or are they actually aging significantly slower?

[thejackgoode]

like hobbits drinking ent water

[visarga]

They forgot him. It's like The Terminal, but in space.

[Oarch]

Can someone clever please do the math and figure out how far ahead in the future he is?

[Rebelgecko]

Just a fraction of a second. IIRC relativistic effects of being on the ISS are around 5 milliseconds/year.

[huhtenberg]

It's a fair question, not sure why it's in gray. After all GPS calculations include corrections for relativistic effects.

[seydor]

With rent prices they way it is i can't blame him for not coming down

[ThrowawayTestr]

Hope the muscular atrophy isn't too bad when he returns.

[comonoid]

I wouldn't return either.

[Throw73747]

He could be mobilized in space, it is done by delivering a letter or electronic message. But why?

Anyway, just for some context, previous Russian crew boarded ISS wearing Ukrainian colors.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/19/russian-cosm...

[youerbt]

> This isn't even hyperbole.

Is there even some big scale mobilization going on in Russia right now?

Or is this just the standard dig at Russia, because the topic is related to Russia?

[FpUser]

I understand your feelings but I do not think Russian cosmonauts have even slightest chance of being mobilized disregarding of them being in space at the moment. Too valuable. Does not qualify for being cannon fodder

[huhtenberg]

His current stay started in September 2023.

878 days is his grand total spent in space.

[avgcorrection]

I guess that’s one way to bring up the Russian invasion topic. “Time has passed, huh”

[verisimi]

Isn't it amazing that Russia and the US work together for the sake of the ISS?

You'd think that would be the first thing they would stop helping each other with, but no, they just carry on as if nothing had happened!

Diplomatic relations are always in place when it comes to the ISS.

[muditmudit]

A very small nitpick: "cosmonaut" implies a Russian astronaut [1].

Calling someone a "Russian cosmonaut" goes against the DRY principles ;)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Cosmonaut

[bhickey]

Well actually... There have been non-Russian Soviet bloc cosmonauts.

For example —

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miros%C5%82aw_Hermaszewski

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Klimuk

[falcor84]

> goes against the DRY principles ;)

Nitpicking, "DRY" is a principle, so you probably meant to say "goes against DRY ;)"

[Nux]

In Romanian and other languages "cosmonaut" and "astronaut" can be used interchangeably.

[Rebelgecko]

IMO it's marginally useful to specify that he isn't Soviet or from another former Soviet country that uses the term