Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko on Sunday set a world record for the total time spent in space. He spent more than 878 days in orbit, Reuters reports, citing the Russian Space Corporation, UNN writes.
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At 08:30 GMT, Kononenko set a record.
On June 5, Kononenko is expected to reach the 1,000-day mark in space, and by the end of September, his time in space will have reached 1,110 days.
The astronaut is aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at a distance of about 263 miles (423 km) from Earth.
According to representatives of the Russian space agency, the 59-year-old cosmonaut took the championship from another Russian , Gennady Padalka, who had been in space for 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds.
According to Reuters, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia's space program has faced a lack of funding and corruption.