Valery Polyakov death: Cosmonaut holding record for longest-ever trip to space dies aged 80

Polyakov spent record 437 days and 18 hours in space in his second expedition

Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who holds the record for the longest-ever trip to space, has died at the age of 80, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced on Monday.

Dr Polyakov, a space medicine specialist, had spent a record 437 days and 18 hours aboard Russia’s Mir space station from January 1994 to March 1995.

Over two space expeditions, the cosmonaut spent a total duration of 678 days 16 hours in space, Roscosmos said, announcing his death without specifying the cause.

Dr Polyakov was born in the Tula industrial heartland of Russia on 24 April 1942 and was an astronautics medicine specialist.

The cosmonaut was awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union” for his first space flight from August 1988 to April 1989.

During this mission, he spent over 240 days in orbit aboard the Mir space station.

The record-breaking 437 days were spent in his next trip aboard the space station, from 8 January 1994 to 22 March 1995, in which he conducted experiments and completed just over 7,000 orbits around Earth.

Dr Polyakov had volunteered for the trip to understand how the human body would respond to the micro-gravity environment on long-duration space missions.

On returning to Earth from the mission, he declined to be carried out of the space capsule, as was customary to acclimatise astronauts and cosmonauts back to Earth’s gravity, and instead walked the short distance to prove humans can work on Mars after a long-duration space voyage.

Over the years, the Russian cosmonaut has published several works on the human physiology aspects of space flight.

“His research has helped prove that the human body is ready to travel not only to Earth’s orbit, but also into deep space,” Roscosmos said in its statement.

“The Roscosmos State Corporation regrets to announce the death of Valery Polyakov, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Russia, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, holder of the world record for the longest flight into space (437 days),” the Russian space agency noted in a Telegram post.