List of human spaceflights
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Apollo_7_photographed_in_flight_by_ALOTS_%2868-HC-641%29.jpg/220px-Apollo_7_photographed_in_flight_by_ALOTS_%2868-HC-641%29.jpg)
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 100 kilometres (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 miles (80 km).
As of the launch of Soyuz MS-25 on 23 March 2024, there have been 383 human spaceflight launches. 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 aborted missions did cross either the Kármán line or the U.S. definition of space. These were the non-fatal aborted Soyuz mission MS-10 which did not reach the Kármán line but did pass the 80 km (50 mi) line. The other was the non-fatal 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 miles (80 km), but failed to go beyond 62 miles (100 km), so therefore do not qualify as spaceflights under the FAI definition.
Summary
[edit]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 | ![]() ![]() |
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Subtotals by decade | |||||||||||||||
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Agency | Soviet space program ![]() |
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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[a] | No.[b][c] | Program[d] | Dates | No.[e] | Company | Program | Dates | No.[f] | 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 | 38 | ||||||||||||||||||
Skylab | 1973–1974 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
Apollo–Soyuz | 1975 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
1981–1990 | Space Shuttle |
1981–2011 | 135 | 63 | |||||||||||||||
1991–2000 | Soyuz | 1992–present | 86 | 83 | |||||||||||||||
2001–2010 | Scaled Composites | SpaceShipOne | 2004 | 3 | Shenzhou | 2003–present | 13 | 61 | |||||||||||
2011–2020 | Virgin Galactic | SpaceShipTwo | 2018–2024 | 12 | SpaceX | Crew Dragon (Commercial Crew) | 2020–present | 13 | 47 | ||||||||||
2021–2030 | Blue Origin | New Shepard | 2021–present | 7 | Boeing | Boeing Starliner (Commercial Crew) | 2024–present | 1 | 43 | ||||||||||
Subtotals by entity |
159 | 179 | 22 | 14 | 13 | Total | 387 |
Human spaceflights
[edit]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.
Timeline
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/o6e3ohkq9gtt8cituhng8zb5y5fi5kn.png)
List by decades
[edit]See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Dates in this table refer only to actual flights, and not the broader duration of their associated programs. For example, while Project Gemini was begun in 1961 and concluded in 1966, its crewed spaceflights occurred only from 1965–1966.
- ^ Soyuz missions include the following: two fatal missions, Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11, both of which reached space; Soyuz 18a, a non-fatal aborted mission which reached space as a sub-orbital flight; Soyuz 19, the Soviet participant in the Apollo–Soyuz; and Soyuz T-10a, a non-fatal accident in which the crewed launch was aborted due to a fire, failing to reach space.
- ^ Soyuz missions include Soyuz MS-10.
- ^ Following the Apollo program, the Skylab and Apollo–Soyuz flights also used Apollo hardware.
- ^ includes two fatal missions, STS-51-L, and STS-107. The former did not reach space, while the latter did. Includes X-15 flights over 80 km (50 miles).
- ^ Includes VP-03 and VF-01, which both satisfied the United States definition of spaceflight (50 mi (80.47 km)), but fell short of the Kármán line (100 km (62.14 mi)), the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale definition.
External links
[edit]- Spacefacts Compare with the present article. The Spacefacts list includes most flights listed here, but omits twelve: The three failed launches of STS-51-L, Soyuz T-10a and Soyuz MS-10, none of which achieved human spaceflight, the uncrewed launch of Soyuz 34 (which nevertheless returned a crew to Earth), and the eight sub-orbital human spaceflights: Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4, X-15 flights 90 and 91, SpaceShipOne flights 15P, 16P and 17P, and Soyuz 18a.
- Astronautix Similarly, see the list for "Manned Spaceflight" given at Astronautix, which includes other related categories.
References
[edit]- Vostok and Voskhod flight history Archived 2021-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
- 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