MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. TASS Director-General Andrey Kondrashov on Friday handed over to Maxim Kharlamov, the chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, a certificate of the agency's special correspondent on the International Space Station (ISS) for cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who will become a fourth TASS correspondent on the orbital outpost.
The certificate was handed over at the TASS headquarters in Moscow. Earlier, Oleg Kononenko was handed the agency's space mascot - a soft toy Inotasia, which will go with him into space.
"I am very happy to welcome you to TASS. This is a place where you should certainly feel at home, because it was us who were the first to inform the world about the flight of Yuri Gagarin. We ushered in a completely new era of cooperation with you: TASS was the first news agency and the only one to open a correspondent’s office on the International Space Station. This shows that we are destined to be together. A fourth TASS special correspondent on the ISS will soon take office. I am pleased to present this certificate issued to Oleg Kononenko, the deputy head of the Cosmonaut Training Center, commander of the cosmonaut squad, and now also a TASS special correspondent," TASS Director-General Andrey Kondrashov said at the ceremony.
In turn, Maxim Kharlamov, the head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (part of Roscosmos), said that Kononenko would impeccably perform the duties of a special correspondent.
"Today Oleg was unable to attend the ceremony himself. The crew is finalizing preparations for the flight. But I will definitely hand over the certificate to him. He asked me to assure that he would be doing the correspondent's job to the best of his knowledge," Kharlamov noted.
Oleg Kononenko, the deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, commander of the cosmonaut squad of Roscosmos, will leave for the ISS on September 15 this year on the Soyuz MS-24 transport manned spacecraft. The expedition will also include cosmonaut Nikolay Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara.
Kononenko will be transmitting to TASS exclusive information about the cosmonauts’ daily routine on the ISS and their research activities. News from space and photos and videos will be available on TASS resources and the agency’s official pages on social media.
Cooperation between TASS and Roscosmos
On November 17, 2021, TASS and Roscosmos signed a memorandum of cooperation, according to which the agency's office was opened on the ISS. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin became the first special correspondent for TASS. His flight lasted 12 days. Oleg Artemyev took over as the agency’s second special correspondent. The current contributor to the TASS news feed from the orbital outpost is Dmitry Petelin.
TASS and Roscosmos have been developing cooperation for many years, with a number of special projects on space, exhibitions and other joint events accomplished by now. Last August, an agreement was signed on the distribution of Roscosmos photo and video content through the TASS media bank (tassphoto.com).