MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, who became the first special correspondent aboard the International Space Station (ISS) representing TASS news agency, is retiring from the team of Russian cosmonauts, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center said in a statement on Thursday.

"Today, on March 31, 2022, Alexander Misurkin is on his last official day of work at the cosmonaut training center," the statement reads. "He is wrapping up his career as part of the Roscosmos [the Russian Space Agency] team of cosmonauts."

The 44-year-old Misurkin officially joined the team of Russian cosmonauts in 2006 and since then he made three trips to space, having spent a total of 346 days, seven hours, and four minutes in orbit. He also conducted four spacewalks.

His first space flight took place in 2013 aboard the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, his second flight was aboard the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft in 2017-2018.

On December 8, 2021, Misurkin took off to the ISS with two space tourists - Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his business assistant Yozo Hirano. On that same day, an epoch-making news office commenced its work aboard the ISS thanks to a memorandum of cooperation signed between the world-renowned TASS Russian News Agency and Roscosmos on November 17, 2021.

Under the milestone agreement, Roscosmos cosmonaut, Hero of Russia Alexander Misurkin became the first TASS correspondent in space.

He reported on the space station’s daily routine and communicated with scientists responsible for scientific experiments aboard the orbital outpost. His latest information from space was available to the agency’s readership from TASS' news resources. In addition, his photo and video contributions can be seen on the agency’s website and official social media pages.

On the morning of December 20, 2021, the Soyuz MS-20 descent module carrying Roscosmos cosmonaut Misurkin, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his business assistant Yozo Hirano returned to Earth.