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Kononenko to command Soyuz MS-24 to ISS as next TASS special reporter in mid-September

The cosmonaut will cover life and work at the ISS, as well as experiments being conducted in zero gravity in outer space

Deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Oleg Kononenko Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

Deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Oleg Kononenko

© Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Oleg Kononenko, who will depart for the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-September, will become the fourth TASS special reporter on board the station.

The cosmonaut will cover life and work at the ISS, as well as experiments being conducted in zero gravity in outer space. His stories will be available on the news agency’s website, and he will post his photos and videos on the social media, too.

The Soyuz MS-24 spaceflight is scheduled to launch on September 15 to take the new TASS special reporter and the Expedition 70 crew to the ISS. The next expedition will also comprise Russian cosmonaut Nikolay Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.

While O’Hara will return to the Earth on board the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft next spring, Kononenko and Chub’s mission will last to September 2024 after which the two cosmonauts will return home from the ISS on board the Soyuz MS-25. Kononenko may become the Earth’s first human to spend more than 1,000 days in a space station as part of a year-long expedition.

Alexander Misurkin was the first TASS special reporter, who was replaced with cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev in that role after spending 12 days on the ISS in 2021. Dmitry Petelin is currently serving as a TASS special reporter.

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