On the 21st of June, 2024, Hero of the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, 1st class test cosmonaut instructor, commander of the cosmonaut corps of the Roscosmos State Corporation Oleg Kononenko will turn 60 years old. The spacecraft, which is scheduled to dock with the ISS on the 1st of June, is carrying a gift for the hero of the day - handmade sweets.
Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko was born on the 21st of June, 1964 in the city of Charjev (now Turkmenabat) of the Turkmen SSR. In 1981 he graduated from secondary school №15 there. It was on Turkmen soil that Oleg Kononenko began to dream of astronautics as a child. By his own admission, the decision to become an astronaut was made long before entering the Harkov Aviation Institute named after N.E. Zukovskiy, from which he graduated in 1988 with a degree in «Aircraft Engines» with the qualification «mechanical engineer».
Oleg Kononenko is currently on a one-year expedition aboard the ISS, the fifth flight in his career. He has already become a new world record holder for the total duration of space flights. Upon completion of the current expedition (as planned - 23rd of September, 2024), the total flight time of cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko will be 1,110 days.
In a recent interview with TASS, Oleg Kononenko said: «Cosmonaut is a profession where you need to constantly study and keep yourself in good intellectual and physical shape. And for me this is very important. I like to be in good shape, to be active, to be at the peak of knowledge and up to date with the latest achievements, and to constantly expand my horizons. And, of course, once experienced the feeling of weightlessness gives an additional incentive and charges with the desire to repeat the experience of space flight». According to Oleg Dmitriyevich, for him personally, conducting scientific experiments in orbit has always been of great interest, because it gives a special feeling of involvement in the research that scientists are conducting on Earth, and the results of which humanity will use to solve important issues.
