The longest time spent on the ISS by an astronaut is 340 days.

 

The longest time spent on the ISS by an astronaut is 340 days.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhael Kornienko and American astronaut Scott Kelly were the lucky two who got to spend the record-breaking time aboard the ISS.

The most exciting experiment required little to no work on behalf of the astronauts, as they studied the long-term effects of being in space.

Scientists were able to make accurate comparisons, as they were able to study both Scott Kelly and his Earth-bound identical twin brother, Mark.

But the achievement comes amid volatile relations between the US and Russia in space. Russia has stopped selling rocket engines to the US, following sanctions President Biden imposed in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Kelly got into a Twitter spat with Russia's top space official, Dmitry Rogozin, who made inflammatory comments about the ISS falling to Earth without Russia's help. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and astronomer Jonathan McDowell have also sparred with Rogozin online.

Still, NASA officials maintain that operations on the ISS aren't affected by fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Vande Hei is still poised to return safely to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship on March 30.

"Nothing has changed in the last three weeks," Joel Montalbano, NASA's ISS program manager, said in a spacewalk press briefing on Monday.