Veteran cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, having set a new space endurance record just four days before the 30th anniversary of Sputnik 1 Wednesday, is expected to stay aboard the orbiting Mir space station for as many as 60 more days.
Mir`s 43-year-old flight commander, a veteran of two previous landmark space flights in 1978 and 1980, eclipsed the previous Soviet mark of 237 days Wednesday night.
Romanenko was launched at 12:38 a.m. Moscow time on Feb. 6 and the U.S. Library of Congress and the Guinness book of space flight records said the old record was 236 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes.
The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the international organization that officially sanctions space records, requires Romanenko`s stay in space to exceed the old record by 10 percent before the new record is officially recognized, according to Marcia Smith, a space analyst with the Library of Congress.
In any case, the endurance feat adds to the Soviet Union`s unquestioned record as the leader in long-term manned space flight, which is considered the key to achieving their goals of establishing a permanently manned space station and launching a manned expedition to Mars.
Romanenko is scheduled to remain aboard the space station up to two more months, bringing his tour aboard the craft to 10 months, Soviet officials said.
By comparison, the longest manned U.S. flight was 84 days on board the Skylab space station in 1973 and 1974. The old record for long-term space flight was held by cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov and Oleg Atkov and was set on Oct 2, 1984.
