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List of human spaceflights
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This is a list of all crewed spaceflights throughout history. Beginning in 1961 with the flight of Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, crewed spaceflight occurs when a human crew flies a spacecraft into outer space. Human spaceflight is distinguished from spaceflight generally, which entails both crewed and uncrewed spacecraft.
There are two definitions of spaceflight. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping body, defines the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space at 62 mi above sea level. This boundary is known as the Kármán line. The United States awards astronaut wings to qualified personnel who pilot a spaceflight above an altitude of 50 mi.
As of the launch of Blue Origin NS-38 on 23 January 2026, there have been 411 human spaceflight launches.
- Three of these were launched without crew but returned crew to Earth after damage to the crew's launch vehicle. These were Soyuz 34, Soyuz MS-23 and Shenzhou 22.
- Two missions did not cross either the Kármán line or the U.S. definition of space and therefore do not qualify as spaceflights. These were the fatal STS-51-L (Challenger disaster), and the non-fatal aborted Soyuz mission T-10a.
- Two non-fatal aborted missions crossed either the Kármán line or the U.S. definition of space. One was the Soyuz mission MS-10, which did not reach the Kármán line but did pass the 80 km (50 mi) line. The other was the Soyuz mission 18a, which crossed the Kármán line.
- Four missions successfully achieved human spaceflight, yet ended as fatal failures as their crews died during the return. These were Soyuz 1, X-15 flight 191, Soyuz 11, and STS-107 (Columbia disaster).
- Twenty two flights in total reached an apogee beyond 50 mi, but failed to go beyond 100 km, so therefore do not qualify as spaceflights under the FAI definition.
Summary
Since 1961, three countries (China, Russia, and the United States) and one former country (Soviet Union) have conducted human spaceflight using seventeen different spacecraft series, or: "programs", "projects".
| Entity | (1961–1991) / | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1992–present) | Subtotals | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| by decade | Agency | Soviet space program | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[File:Roscosmos_logo_ru.svg | 30px]] Roscosmos | [[File:NASA logo.svg | 30px]] NASA | Private space corporations operating sub-orbital flights out of the United States | Private space corporations operating orbital flights out of the United States | CMSA | Decades | Program | Dates | No. | Program | Dates | No. | Company | Program | Dates | No. | Company | Program | Dates | No. | Program | Dates | No. | ||
| **1961–1970** | Vostok | 1961–1963 | 6 | Mercury | 1961–1963 | 6 | **52** | |||||||||||||||||||
| Voskhod | 1964–1965 | 2 | X-15 | 1962–1968 | 13 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Soyuz | 1967–1991 | 66 | Gemini | 1965–1966 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Apollo | 1968–1972 | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| **1971–1980** | **39** | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skylab | 1973–1974 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apollo–Soyuz | 1975 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| **1981–1990** | Space | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shuttle | 1981–2011 | 135 | **63** | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| **1991–2000** | Soyuz | 1992–present | 90 | **83** | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| **2001–2010** | Scaled Composites | SpaceShipOne | 2004 | 3 | Shenzhou | 2003–present | 17 | **61** | ||||||||||||||||||
| **2011–2020** | Virgin Galactic | SpaceShipTwo | 2018–2024 | 11 | SpaceX | Crew Dragon (Commercial Crew) | 2020–present | 19 | **47** | |||||||||||||||||
| **2021–2030** | Blue Origin | New Shepard | 2021–present | 17 | Boeing | Boeing Starliner (Commercial Crew) | 2024–present | 1 | **66** | |||||||||||||||||
| **Subtotals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| by entity** | **164** | **179** | **31** | **20** | **17** | **Total** | **411** |
Human spaceflights
The Salyut series, Skylab, Mir, ISS, and Tiangong series space stations, with which many of these flights docked in orbit, are not listed separately here. See the detailed lists (links below) for information.
- Missions which were intended to reach space but which failed to do so are listed in bold.
- Missions between 50 miles (80.45 km) and 100 km (62 mi), which satisfy the US Military definition of space(50 Miles), but not the NASA or Internationally recognized Karman Line definition (100 km) are listed in italics.
- Fatal missions are marked with a dagger (†) symbol.
| Blue Origin NS-38 |
|---|
Timeline
List by decades
| Decade | Total flights | Major milestones | First by nationality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | |||
| 38 | |||
| 61 | |||
| 83 | |||
| 2000s | 61 | ||
| 44 | — | ||
| 51 | Inspiration4, first fully private orbital flight | ||
| Axiom Mission 1, first fully private ISS orbital flight | |||
| Polaris Dawn, first fully private orbital spacewalk | |||
| Fram2, first polar retrograde orbital flight | |||
| Germany Michaela Benthaus, First wheelchair user in space | Portugal Mário Ferreira | ||
| Egypt Sara Sabry | |||
| Antigua and Barbuda Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers | |||
| PAK Namira Salim | |||
| TUR Alper Gezeravcı | |||
| Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya | |||
| Malta/Saint Kitts and Nevis Chun Wang | |||
Notes
References
- Vostok and Voskhod flight history
- Mercury flight history
- X-15 flight history (altitudes given in feet)
- Gemini flight history
- Apollo flight history (student resource)
- Skylab flight history
- Apollo-Soyuz flight history
- Space Shuttle flight history infographic
- Shenzhou flight history timeline
- SpaceShipOne flight history
References
- Rogge, Rabea. (27 November 2024). "We just completed another round of training!".
- Bjørnstad, Nora Thorp. (2 December 2024). "Jannicke Mikkelsen blir første nordmann i verdensrommet: Her er det første bildet". VG.
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