Records and firsts in spaceflight are broadly divided into crewed and uncrewed categories. Records involving animal spaceflight have also been noted in earlier experimental flights, typically to establish the feasibility of sending humans to outer space.
The notion of "firsts" in spaceflight follows a long tradition of firsts in aviation, but is also closely tied to the Space Race. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States competed to be the first countries to accomplish various feats. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial orbital satellite. In 1961, Soviet Vostok 1 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to enter space and orbit the Earth, and in 1969 American Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon. No human has traveled beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, when the Apollo program ended.
During the 1970s, the Soviet Union directed its energies to human habitation of space stations of increasingly long durations. In the 1980s, the United States began launching its Space Shuttles, which carried larger crews and thus could increase the number of people in space at a given time. Following their first mission of détente on the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the Soviet Union and the United States again collaborated with each other on the Shuttle-Mir initiative, efforts which led to the International Space Station (ISS), which has been continuously inhabited by humans for over 20 years.
Other firsts in spaceflight involve demographics, private enterprise, and distance. Dozens of countries have sent at least one traveler to space. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, aboard Vostok 6. In the early 21st century, private companies joined government agencies in crewed spaceflight: in 2004, the sub-orbitalspaceplaneSpaceShipOne became the first privately funded crewed craft to enter space; in 2020, SpaceX's Dragon 2 became the first privately developed crewed vehicle to reach orbit when it ferried a crew to the ISS. As of 2024, the uncrewed probe Voyager 1 is the most distant artificial object from the Earth, part of a small class of vehicles that are leaving the Solar System.
First independent suborbital and orbital human spaceflight by country
Note: Some space records are disputed as a result of ambiguities surrounding the border of space. Most records follow the FAI definition of the space border which the FAI sets at an altitude of 100km (62.14mi). By contrast, the NASA-, USAF- and FAA-defined border of space is at 50mi (80.47km).
Note: The six SpaceShipTwo flights surpass the U.S. definition of spaceflight (50mi (80.47km)), but fall short of the Kármán line (100km (62.14mi)), the definition used for FAI space recordkeeping.
John W. Young (USA[20]) launched from Earth 6 times (two Gemini, two Apollo Command Module, two Space Shuttle) and from the Moon once (Apollo Lunar Module Ascent Stage) (1965–1983)
Largest number of different spacecraft at launch (from Earth only)
3 spacecraft
Walter Schirra (USA) – launched aboard a Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (1962–1968)
John W. Young (USA) – launched aboard a Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle (1965–1983)
Soichi Noguchi (Japan) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (2005–2020)
Shane Kimbrough (USA) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (2008–2021)
Akihiko Hoshide (Japan) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (2008–2021)
Thomas Marshburn (USA) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (2007–2021)
Koichi Wakata (Japan) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (1996–2022)
Peggy Whitson (USA) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (2002–2023)
Michael López-Alegría (USA) – launched aboard a Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (1995–2024)
Michael Barratt (USA) – launched aboard a Soyuz, Space Shuttle, and SpaceX Crew Dragon (2009–2024)
Largest number of different launch vehicles (overall)
4 launch vehicles
John W. Young (USA) – launched from Earth aboard a Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle, and launched from the Moon aboard the Apollo Lunar Module Ascent Stage
John Young (USA) - Cape Kennedy Air Force Station (now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, twice aboard a Gemini capsule 1965-1966), Kennedy Space Center (four times, twice aboard an Apollo capsule 1969-1971, twice aboard a Space Shuttle 1981-1983), Descartes Highlands (from the Moon aboard an Apollo Lunar Module, in 1971).
Note: SpaceShipTwo flights are suborbital. SpaceShipTwo flights surpass the U.S. definition of spaceflight (50mi (80.47km)), but fall short of the Kármán line (100km (62.14mi)), the FAI definition used for most space recordkeeping.
Duration records
Total human spaceflight time by country
Total Human Spaceflight statistics by nation [21][22]
Astronauts currently in space: Michael Reed Barratt Hongbo Tang Matthew Stuart Dominick Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko Tracy Caldwell Dyson Nikolai Aleksandrovich Chub Jeanette Jo Epps Aleksandr Sergeyevich Grebyonkin Xinlin Jiang Shengjie Tang
Crew Vehicles currently in space: Soyuz MS-25 Shenzhou-17 SpaceX Crew-8
Table data accurate as of 2024-04-23 04:05 UTC
* includes those in orbit at time table was updated +TOTAL person days in orbit will not match the sum of the totals for individual nations as some individuals are dual citizens (based solely on those identified as such by spacefacts.de - see table references).
Most time in space
The record for most time in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who has spent 957.295 days in space over five missions and is currently in space onboard Soyuz MS-24/25's one year long-duration mission on ISS. If this mission lasts 300–365 days, Kononenko will have spent a total of 1,036-1,101 days in space. Oleg Kononenko broke the record of Gennady Padalka on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC.[23] He will later also become the first person to stay 900 and 1,000 days in space.[24][25]Gennady Padalka is currently second, having spent 878 days in space. He himself had broken the all-time duration record on 28 June 2015 when he surpassed the previous record holder, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes (about 2.2 years) during six spaceflights on Soyuz, the Space Shuttle, Mir, and the International Space Station.[26][27][28]
As of 23April2024[update],[29] the 50 space travelers with the most total time in space are:
NASA astronaut Christina Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days), returning on February 6, 2020.[36] During Expedition 61, she surpassed NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson's 289 days from 2016-17. In third place is American astronaut Anne McClain with 204 days.[40]
Longest continuous occupation of space
An international partnership consisting of Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan, and the member states of the European Space Agency have jointly maintained a continuous human presence in space since 31 October 2000 when Soyuz TM-31 was launched. Two days later, it docked with the International Space Station.[16][41] Since then space has been continuously occupied for 23years, 175days.[16]
Longest continuous occupation of a spacecraft
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by a Russian and US crew member since 2 November 2000 (23years, 173days).[16][41] It broke the record of 9 years and 358 days of the Soviet/Russian Space Station Mir on 23 October 2010.[41]
Longest solo flight
Valery Bykovsky flew solo for 4 days, 23 hours in Vostok 5 from 14 to 19 June 1963.[42] The flight set a space endurance record which was broken in 1965 by the (non-solo) Gemini 5 flight. The Apollo program included long solo spaceflight, and during the Apollo 16 mission, Ken Mattingly orbited solo around the Moon for more than 3 days and 9 hours.
Longest time on the lunar surface
Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission stayed for 74 hours 59 minutes and 40 seconds (over 3 days) on the lunar surface after they landed on 11 December 1972.[43] They performed three EVAs (extra-vehicular activity) totaling 22 hours 3 minutes, 57 seconds. As Apollo commanders were the first to leave the LM and the last to get back in, Cernan's EVA time was slightly longer.[43]
The Apollo 13 crew (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert), while passing over the far side of the Moon at an altitude of 254km (158mi) from the lunar surface, were 400,171km (248,655mi) from Earth.[45] This record-breaking distance was reached at 00:21 UTC on 15 April 1970.[45]
The record for uncrewed spacecraft is held by the Parker Solar Probe at 176km/s, about 1/1700 (or 0.06%) the speed of light, relative to the Sun. This speed was first reached in September 2023.
Age records
Wally Funk flew in July, 2021William Shatner flew in October, 2021
Both of these are the record for the largest total number of spacewalks by a male and a female, and the most cumulative time spent on spacewalks by a male and a female.
Man – Anatoly Solovyev, 16 spacewalks for a total time of 82 hours, 21 minutes.[50]
7: Anatoly Solovyev, during Expedition 24 on the Soviet/Russian space station Mir, in 1997–98. (Two were internal "spacewalks" inside a depressurized module.)
7: Andrew Morgan, during his first spaceflight on board the ISS for Expedition 60/61/62 in 2019–2020, he spent 45 hours and 48 minutes outside the station.
Longest single spacewalk
8 hrs 56 min, by James Voss and Susan Helms, 11 March 2001 on an ISS assembly mission during Shuttle mission STS-102. The space walkers were delayed early in their excursion when a device to help hold an astronaut's feet to the shuttle's robot arm became untethered,[54] and Voss had to retrieve a spare from storage on the exterior of the station's Unity module. After about six hours of work, the pair reentered Space Shuttle Discovery’s airlock.
Greatest distance from a spacecraft during a spacewalk
All-time (and while on a planetary body[55]): 7.6 kilometers[56]:1144 (4.7 miles, 25,029 feet[57]), Apollo 17, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, EVA-2, December 12, 1972. During their second of three moonwalks, Cernan and Schmitt rode the Lunar Roving Vehicle to geological station 2, Nansen Crater, at the foot of the South Massif. As all spacewalks not occurring on a planetary body (the Moon) have involved short maximum distances from the spacecraft (see below), this remains the furthest distance that humans have traveled away from the safety of a pressurizable spacecraft, during an EVA of any type.
Orbital flight: about 100 meters (or 330 feet), Bruce McCandless, STS-41-B, February 7, 1984. With the exception of six Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) sorties in 1984 and a test of the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER) in 1994, all other orbital spacewalks have involved a safety tether, anchoring the spacefarer to the spacecraft at a short distance. Among the former untethered spacewalks, Bruce McCandless' first test of the MMU established an orbital EVA distance record from a spacecraft which remained unbroken by later untethered EVAs.[58]
The first animals to enter space were fruit flies launched by the United States in 1947 aboard a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 68 miles (109km).[61] They were also the first animals to safely return from space.[61]Albert II, a rhesus monkey, became the first mammal in space aboard a U.S. V-2 rocket on June 14, 1949, and died on reentry due to a parachute failure. The first dogs in space were launched 22 July 1951 aboard a Soviet R-1V. "Tsygin" and "Dezik" reached a height of 100km (62mi) and safely parachuted back to Earth. This flight preceded the first American canine space mission by two weeks.[62]:21
First animal in orbit
Laika was a Soviet female canine launched on 3 November 1957 on Sputnik 2. The technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, so there was no expectation for survival. She died several hours into flight. Belka and Strelka became the first canines to safely return to Earth from orbit on 19 August 1960.
Soviet space dogs Veterok (Ветерок, "Light Wind") and Ugolyok (Уголёк, "Ember") were launched on 22 February 1966 on board Cosmos 110 and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on 16 March.
First animals beyond low Earth orbit
An assortment of animals including a pair of Russian tortoises, as well as wine flies and mealworms flew around the Moon with a number of other biological specimens including seeds and bacteria on a circumlunar mission aboard the Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft on 18 September 1968.[61] It had been launched by a Proton-K rocket on 14 September.[61]
Zond 5 came within 2,000 kilometres (1,200mi) of the Moon and then successfully returned to Earth, the first spacecraft in history to return safely to Earth from the Moon.[61]
First satellite designed and constructed by a country other than the USA or USSR (the British satellite Ariel 1, launched five months earlier, was designed and constructed by the USA).[67]
First satellite launched independently by a nation other than the USA or USSR (other nations had previously flown satellites launched on American rockets).
All United States spacecraft including New Horizons
With the New Horizons flyby of Pluto, the United States is the first nation to have its space probes explore all nine planets in the pre-2006 IAU redefinition version of the Solar System.
First robotic rendezvous and docking by two spacecraft (lunar orbiter attached with reentry-capsule and lunar ascent vehicle) in lunar orbit or any orbit other than Earth's.[87]
First robotic transfer of payload (lunar samples from lunar ascent vehicle to reentry capsule) between two docked spacecraft in lunar orbit or any orbit other than Earth's.[88]
Highest velocity of a spacecraft relative to the Sun: 176km/s (635,000km/h; 395,000mph).
Closest approach to the Sun: distance of 0.049 AU (7,260,000 kilometres; 4,510,000mi).[90] Spacecraft will continue to lower its perihelion with one more Venus gravity assist before its closest approach in 2024, which is expected to bring the probe within 9.86 solar radii (6,900,000km; 4,300,000mi) of the Sun's surface at a velocity of 191.7km/s (690,000km/h; 430,000mph),[91] by which point it will have become the fastest object in the Solar System apart from comets (overtaking asteroid 2005 HC4).
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and lunar or planetary surface exploration. In a stand-up EVA (SEVA), an astronaut stands through an open hatch but does not fully leave the spacecraft. EVAs have been conducted by the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Space Agency and China.
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts, cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and had its peak with the more particular Moon Race to land on the Moon between the US moonshot and Soviet moonshot programs. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic space probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory.
John Watts Young was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. He is the only astronaut to fly on four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo command and service module, the Apollo Lunar Module and the Space Shuttle.
Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko is a retired Russian cosmonaut. Malenchenko became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles (390 km) over New Zealand, on the International Space Station. As of December 2023, Malenchenko ranks third for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station (ISS). He is a former commander of the International Space Station.
Space Adventures, Inc. is an American space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. Its offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights, and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours. Plans announced thus far include sub-orbital and lunar spaceflights, though these are not being actively pursued at present. Nine of its clients have participated in the orbital spaceflight program with Space Adventures, including one who took two separate trips to space.
Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov was an engineer, cosmonaut, and administrator at Russian aerospace firm RSC Energia. He flew into space five times and lived aboard the Salyut 6, Salyut 7, and Mir space stations, spending over 268 days in space. The catastrophic explosion of a Soyuz rocket in 1983 led to him being one of only four people to use a launch escape system. He was decorated twice as Hero of the Soviet Union and received the Ashoka Chakra from India.
Mikhail Vladislavovich Tyurin is a former Russian cosmonaut who flew several missions to the International Space Station and completed four spacewalks during his career. He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation for his work as a cosmonaut.
Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin is a Russian cosmonaut of Greek descent, engineer and RSC Energia test-pilot who has flown on five spaceflights. His first spaceflight was a 10-day Space Shuttle mission STS-112. His second was a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a flight engineer for Expedition 15; for this mission he was launched in the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft. He has undertaken two further long-duration stays aboard the ISS, as a crew member of Expedition 24 / 25. For this mission he was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19, and he landed in November 2010, also with the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. He served as Soyuz commander for his fourth mission aboard Soyuz TMA-09M, as flight engineer for Expedition 36 and ISS commander for Expedition 37. In April 2017, Yurchikhin launched on Soyuz MS-04 for the fifth spaceflight of his career, a six-month mission to the ISS as part of Expedition 51 and 52, for which he was the commander.
Project Gemini was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American manned space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965 and 1966.
The Shuttle–Mir program was a collaborative 11-mission space program between Russia and the United States that involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the Shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir.
A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Capsules are distinguished from other spacecraft by the ability to survive reentry and return a payload to the Earth's surface from orbit or sub-orbit, and are distinguished from other types of recoverable spacecraft by their blunt shape, not having wings and often containing little fuel other than what is necessary for a safe return. Capsule-based crewed spacecraft such as Soyuz or Orion are often supported by a service or adapter module, and sometimes augmented with an extra module for extended space operations. Capsules make up the majority of crewed spacecraft designs, although one crewed spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, has flown in orbit.
Spacecraft call signs are radio call signs used for communication in crewed spaceflight. These are not formalized or regulated to the same degree as other equivalent forms of transportation, like aircraft. The three nations currently launching crewed space missions use different methods to identify the ground and space radio stations; the United States uses either the names given to the space vehicles or else the project name and mission number. Russia traditionally assigns code names as call signs to individual cosmonauts, more in the manner of aviator call signs, rather than to the spacecraft.
A mission patch is a cloth reproduction of a spaceflight mission emblem worn by astronauts and other personnel affiliated with that mission. It is usually executed as an embroidered patch. The term space patch is mostly applied to an emblem designed for a crewed space mission. Traditionally, the patch is worn on the space suit that astronauts and cosmonauts wear when launched into space. Mission patches have been adopted by the crew and personnel of many other space ventures, public and private.
Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard, and Hermann Oberth, each of whom published works proposing rockets as the means for spaceflight. The first successful large-scale rocket programs were initiated in Nazi Germany by Wernher von Braun. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race, launching the first satellite, the first animal, the first human and the first woman into orbit. The United States would then land the first men on the Moon in 1969. Through the late 20th century, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and China were also working on projects to reach space.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to space exploration.
↑ "Manned spaceflights". spacefacts.de. The flight list allows is searched to determine which flight is in orbit, and when it reached orbit. This allows determination of "Total in orbit (@ update) and update the "Total person days" accordingly.
↑ Brian Harvey; Olga Zakutnyaya (2011). Russian Space Probes: Scientific Discoveries and Future Missions. Chichester, UK: Springer Praxis Books. OCLC1316077842.
↑ "Where are the Voyagers?". Retrieved 2023-07-03. Because Earth moves around the sun faster than Voyager 1 is traveling from Earth, the distance between Earth and the spacecraft actually decreases at certain times of the year.
Various conventions, treaties, agreements, memorandums, charters or declarations establishing and governing intergovernmental organisations or inter-agency bodies dealing with space affairs
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