Manned spaceflight
More than 63 years of manned spaceflight since Juri Gagarin's epic journey into low Earth orbit on 12 April 1961 have seen 605 humans flying aboard spaceships ranging from simple capsules to complex orbiters, and then back to reliable capsules. We shall see what the future brings with SpaceX's Starship on the horizon.
As of November 2024, the following crewed space missions have been recorded:
| Vehicle / spacecraft | Number of | Crew | Space station dockings * | Country of origin | Manufacturer | Launcher | Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| missions | crew | max. | successful | failed | |||||
| Starliner | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | USA | Boeing | Atlas V | first flight 05-Jun-2024 |
| Crew Dragon | 15 | 56 | 7 | 13 | 0 | USA | SpaceX | Falcon 9 | first flight 30-May-2020 |
| Soyuz MS | 25 | 70 | 3 | 24 | 1 | Russia | Energia | Soyuz-FG / Soyuz-2.1a | first flight 07-Jul-2016 |
| Shenzhou | 14 | 41 | 3 | 11 | 0 | China | CASC | Long March 2F | first flight 15-Oct-2003 |
| Soyuz TMA/TMA-M | 42 | 126 | 3 | 42 | 0 | Russia | Korolev | Soyuz-FG | first flight 30-Oct-2002 |
| Soyuz TM | 33 | 90 | 3 | 33 | 0 | Soviet Union / Russia | Korolev | Soyuz-FG | first flight 05-Feb-1987 |
| Space Shuttle | 135 | 810 | 8 | 46 | 0 | USA | Rockwell International | STS | first flight 12-Apr-1981 |
| Soyuz T | 15 | 38 | 3 | 14 | 1 | Soviet Union | Korolev | Soyuz-FG | first flight 05-Jun-1980 ** |
| Apollo CSM (LM) | 15 (7) | 45 (16) | 3 (2) | 3 | 0 | USA | North American Aviation | Saturn IB / Saturn V | first flight 11-Oct-1968 |
| Soyuz | 38 | 77 | 3 | 19 | 5 | Soviet Union | Energia | Soyuz (11A511) | first flight 23-Apr-1967 |
| Gemini | 10 | 20 | 2 | – | – | USA | McDonnell Aircraft | Titan II GLV | first flight 23-Mar-1965 |
| Voskhod | 2 | 5 | 3 | – | – | Soviet Union | OKB-1 | Voskhod (11A57) | first flight 12-Oct-1964 |
| Mercury | 6 | 6 | 1 | – | – | USA | McDonnell Aircraft | Mercury-Redstone / Atlas LV-3B | first flight 05-May-1961 |
| Vostok | 6 | 6 | 1 | – | – | Soviet Union | OKB-1 | Vostok-K (8K72K) | first ever manned spaceflight 12-Apr-1961 |
| Total | 357 | 1,392 | 206 | 7 | |||||
| * Salyut 1, Skylab, Salyut 3-7, Mir, International Space Station (ISS), Tiangong-1/-2, Tiangong Space Station ** Soyuz T-15 achieved three successful dockings with two stations (Mir and Salyut 7) | |||||||||
The Space Traveller Log, in three parts, provides an overview of all men and women who ventured into space whether for just one day, a full trip to the moon, or a months-long stay aboard one of the Space Stations orbiting our planet.
The current sixth generation of active spacecraft comprises:
- Starliner (USA), since 2024
- Crew Dragon (USA), since 2020
- Soyuz MS (Russia), since 2016
- Shenzou (China), since 2003
- Orion (USA), which at long last launched on an uncrewed demonstration flight in November 2022
The next generation of versatile spacecraft systems in the making:
- Starship (USA), which embarked on several uncrewed suborbital test flights since April 2023
The third to fifth generation space systems that have been retired included:
- Space Shuttle (USA), 1981-2011
- Soyuz TMA/TMA-M, Soyuz TM and Soyuz T (Russia / Soviet Union), 1980-2016
The first and second generation spacecraft which, among other things achieved the moon landings as well as a set of successful dockings with early space stations, became the pioneers of manned space travel:
- Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (USA), 1961-1975
- Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz (Soviet Union), 1961-1981
Before the first US space travellers managed to orbit Earth, they briefly hopped into space on Suborbital astronaut wings flights aboard the famous, rocket-powered X-15 research aircraft, and early Mercury missions. Eventually back in 2004, first test flights of the privately-funded SpaceShipOne project, presumably paved the way for Space tourism in the 21st century.