Spaceflight records
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This is a list of spaceflight records. Most of these records are about human spaceflights, but some unmanned and canine records are included.
[edit] Longest human single flight
- Valeri Polyakov, launched 8 January 1994 (Soyuz TM-18), stayed at Mir LD-4 for 437.7 days, during which he orbited the earth about 7,075 times and traveled 300,765,000 km, (186,887,000 miles) returned March 22, 1995 (Soyuz TM-20).
[edit] Longest continuous occupation of space
- The Soviet Union and Russia, its successor, kept a continuous manned presence in space from the launch of Soyuz TM-8 on 5 September 1989 to the landing of Soyuz TM-29 on 28 August 1999, a span of about 3,644 days, or about eight days short of 10 years. The Soviet Union and Russia launched 22 manned Soyuz spacecraft during the time span, all of which docked with the orbiting Mir space station. The United States additionally docked the space shuttles Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery with Mir nine times between 1995 and 1998, dropping off and/or picking up passengers eight times.
- The United States and Russia have jointly maintained a continuous manned presence in space since 31 October 2000 when Soyuz TM-31 was launched on a mission to dock with the International Space Station. Six years or about 2,191 days was marked on 31 October 2006.
[edit] Longest solo flight
- Valery Bykovsky flew for 4 days and 23 hours solo in Vostok 5, 14-19 June 1963. The flight set a space endurance record which was broken in 1965 by the Gemini 5 crew, but the solo endurance record has stood for more than 40 years.
[edit] Longest canine single flight
- Veterok (Ветерок, "Little Wind") and Ugolyok (Уголёк, "Ember") were launched on February 22, 1966 on board Cosmos 110 and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on March 16.
[edit] Longest time on lunar surface
- Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission stayed for 74h, 60m on the lunar surface after they landed on 11 December 1972.
[edit] Farthest humans from Earth
- Apollo 13 crew; James Lovell, Fred Haise, John Swigert while passing over the far side of the moon at an altitude of 254 km (158 miles) from the lunar surface, were 400,171 km (248,655 miles) from earth. This record breaking distance was reached at 0:21 UTC on April 15, 1970.
[edit] Highest altitude for non-lunar mission
- Gemini 11 fired its Agena Target Vehicle rocket engine on September 14, 1966, at 40 hours 30 minutes after liftoff and achieved an apogee of 1374.1 km (854 miles).
[edit] Fastest
- The Apollo 10 crew; Thomas Stafford, John W. Young and Gene Cernan achieved the highest speed relative to earth ever attained by humans; 39,896 km/h (11.1 km/s, 24,790 mph).
[edit] Most flights
- 7 Flights
- Franklin Chang-Diaz - USA*
- Jerry L. Ross - USA
(*) Costa Rican-born and honorary citizen of Costa Rica
- 6 Flights
- Curtis Brown - USA
- Michael Foale - Britain/USA*
- Sergei Krikalev - Russia^
- Story Musgrave - USA
- Gennady Strekalov - Russia
- James Wetherbee - USA
- John W. Young - USA
(*) Dual citizen.
(^)Krikalev is scheduled to fly again in 2009. He is the only active astronaut among those with the most flights.
[edit] Most spacewalks
- Anatoly Solovyev, 16 spacewalks for total of 77 hours, 41 minutes (which is also the duration record).
[edit] Most spacewalks during a single mission
- Michael Lopez-Alegria, five spacewalks during Expedition 14 on the ISS.[1]
- Robert Curbeam, four spacewalks for 24h, 45m, during STS-116, an ISS assembly mission.[2]
[edit] Human spaceflight firsts
| First | Person(s) | Vehicle | Country | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spaceflight and Orbital flight |
Yuri Gagarin | Vostok 1 |  USSR |
12 April 1961 |
| Person to land in a spacecraft | Alan Shepard | Freedom 7 |  USA |
5 May 1961 |
| Person in space for one day | Gherman Titov | Vostok 2 | USSR |
6 August 1961- 7 August 1961 |
| Group flight Adjacent orbits Spacecraft-to-spacecraft communications |
Andrian Nikolayev Pavel Popovich |
Vostok 3 Vostok 4 |
USSR |
12 August 1962- 15 August 1962 |
| Woman in space Civilian in space |
Valentina Tereshkova | Vostok 6 | USSR |
16 June 1963- 19 June 1963 |
| Spaceflight by winged spacecraft | Joe Walker | X-15 Flight 90 | USA |
19 July 1963 |
| Person to enter space twice (above 100 km) | Joe Walker | X-15 Flights 90 and 91 |
USA |
22 August 1963 |
| Three-person spacecraft | Vladimir Komarov Konstantin Feoktistov Boris Yegorov |
Voskhod 1 | USSR |
12 October 1964- 13 October 1964 |
| Two-person spacecraft | Pavel Belyayev Aleksei Leonov |
Voskhod 2 | USSR |
18 March 1965- 19 March 1965 |
| Spacewalk | Aleksei Leonov | Voskhod 2 | USSR |
18 March 1965 |
| Orbital maneuvers (change orbit) | Gus Grissom, John W. Young | Gemini 3 | USA |
23 March 1965 |
| Person to fly two orbital spaceflights | Gordon Cooper | Faith 7 Gemini 5 |
USA |
15 May 1965- 16 May 1965; 21 August 1965- 29 August 1965 |
| People to spend one week in space | Gordon Cooper Pete Conrad |
Gemini 5 | USA |
21 August 1965- 29 August 1965 |
| Space rendezvous (orbital maneuver and "station keeping") Four people in space |
Frank Borman, Jim Lovell Walter Schirra, Thomas Stafford |
Gemini 7 Gemini 6A |
USA |
15 December 1965- 16 December 1965 |
| Space docking | Neil Armstrong David Scott |
Gemini 8 and Agena | USA |
16 March 1966 |
| Multiple Rendezvous | John W. Young Michael Collins |
Gemini 10 with Agena 10 and Agena 8 | USA |
19 July 1966; 20 July 1966 |
| Moon orbit | Frank Borman James Lovell Bill Anders |
Apollo 8 | USA |
24 December 1968- 25 December 1968 |
| Dual spacewalk; crew transfer | Aleksei Yeliseyev Yevgeny Khrunov |
Soyuz 4 Soyuz 5 |
USSR |
16 January 1969 |
| Moon landing | Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin |
Apollo 11 | USA |
20 July 1969 |
| Time five people in space | Georgi Shonin, Valeri Kubasov Anatoli Filipchenko, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Gorbatko |
Soyuz 6 Soyuz 7 |
USSR |
12 October 1969- 13 October 1969 |
| Triple spaceflight Seven people in space |
Shonin, Kubasov Filipchenko, Volkov, Gorbatko Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei Yeliseyev |
Soyuz 6 Soyuz 7 Soyuz 8 |
USSR |
13 October 1969- 16 October 1969 |
| People to spend two weeks in space | Andrian Nikolayev Vitali Sevastyanov |
Soyuz 9 | USSR |
1 June 1970- 19 June 1970 |
| Manned space station | Georgi Dobrovolski Viktor Patsayev Vladislav Volkov |
Soyuz 11 docked with Salyut 1 | USSR |
7 June 1971- 29 June 1971 |
| In-space fatalities | Dobrovolski Patsayev Volkov |
Soyuz 11 | USSR |
29 June 1971 |
| People in orbit four weeks |
Pete Conrad Joseph Kerwin Paul Weitz |
Skylab 2 | USA |
25 May 1973- 22 June 1973 |
| People in orbit eight weeks |
Alan Bean Jack Lousma Owen Garriott |
Skylab 3 | USA |
28 July 1973- 25 September 1973 |
| People in orbit twelve weeks |
Gerald Carr William Pogue Edward Gibson |
Skylab 4 | USA |
16 November 1974- 8 February 1974 |
| Crew to visit occupied space station | Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Oleg Makarov | Soyuz 27 visits Salyut 6 EO-1 crew | USSR |
10 January 1978- 16 January 1978 |
| Non-Soviet, non-American in space | Vladimir Remek | Soyuz 28 |  Czechoslovakia |
2 March 1978- 10 March 1978 |
| People in orbit nineteen weeks (4 months) |
Vladimir Kovalyonok , Aleksandr Ivanchenkov | Salyut 6 EO-2, Soyuz 29-Soyuz 31 | USSR |
15 June 1978- 2 November 1978 |
| People in orbit twenty-six weeks (6 months) |
Leonid Popov, Valery Ryumin | Salyut 6 EO-4, Soyuz 35-Soyuz 37 | USSR |
9 April 1980- 11 October 1980 |
| Person to fly four different types of spacecraft | John Watts Young | STS-1 | USA |
12 April 1981 |
| Four-person spaceflight, single spacecraft |
Vance Brand,Robert F. Overmyer Joseph P. Allen, William B. Lenoir |
STS-5 | USA |
11 November 1982- 16 November 1982 |
| Five-person spaceflight, single spacecraft U.S. woman in space |
Robert L. Crippen, Frederick H. Hauck John M. Fabian, Sally K. Ride, Norman E. Thagard |
STS-7 | USA |
18 June 1983- 24 June 1983 |
| Six-person spaceflight, single spacecraft |
John W. Young, Brewster H. Shaw Owen K. Garriott, Robert A. Parker, Ulf Merbold-DE, Byron K. Lichtenberg |
STS-9 | USA Germany |
28 November 1983- 8 December 1983 |
| Untethered spacewalk | Bruce McCandless II | STS-41-B | USA |
7 February 1984 |
| Time eight people in space, no docking | Oleg Atkov, Vance D. Brand, Robert L. Gibson, Leonid Kizim, Bruce McCandless II, Ronald McNair, Vladimir Solovov, Robert L. Stewart | Salyut 7 EO-3, Soyuz T-10, STS-41-B | USSR USA |
8 February 1984- 11 February 1984 |
| Time eleven people in space, no docking | Oleg Atkov, Robert L. Crippen, Terry J. Hart, Leonid D. Kizim, Yuri Malyshev, George Nelson, Francis Scobee, Rakesh Sharma, Vladimir Solovov, Gennady Strekalov, James van Hoften | STS-41-C, Salyut 7 EO-3, Soyuz T-10-Soyuz T-11 | USSR USA |
6 April 1984- 11 April 1984 |
| People to complete four spacewalks during the same mission | Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov | Salyut 7 | USSR |
April 26 - May 18, 1984 |
| People in orbit thirty-three weeks (7 months) |
Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov, Oleg Atkov | Salyut 7 EO-3, Soyuz T-10-Soyuz T-11 | USSR |
8 February 1984- 2 October 1984 |
| Seven person spaceflight, single spacecraft |
Robert L. Crippen, Jon A. McBride Kathryn D. Sullivan, Sally K. Ride, David C. Leestma, Marc Garneau-CA, Paul D. Scully-Power |
STS-41-G | USA Canada |
5 October 1984- 13 October 1984 |
| Partial crew exchange at a space station | Alexander Volkov, Vladimir Vasyutin replace Vladimir Dzhanibekov | Soyuz T-14, Salyut 7 | USSR |
17 September 1985- 26 September 1985 |
| Eight person spaceflight, single spacecraft |
Henry W. Hartsfield, Steven R. Nagel Bonnie J. Dunbar, James F. Buchli, Guion S. Bluford, Reinhard Furrer-DE, Ernst Messerschmid-DE, Wubbo Ockels-NL |
STS-61-A | USA West Germany Netherlands |
30 October 1985- 6 November 1985 |
| Space station to space station flight |
Leonid Kizim Vladimir Solovyov |
Soyuz T-15 from Mir to Salyut 7 | USSR |
5 May 1986- 6 May 1986 |
| Complete crew exchange at a space station | Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov replace Yuri Romanenko, Alexander Alexandrov | Soyuz TM-4-Soyuz TM-2,Soyuz TM-3, at Mir | USSR |
21 December 1987- 29 December 1987 |
| People in orbit fifty-two weeks (12 months) |
Titov, Manarov | Mir EO-3, Soyuz TM-4-Soyuz TM-6 | USSR |
21 December 1987- 21 December 1988 |
| Time twelve people in space; no docking | Shuttle: Vance Brand, Samuel Durrance, Guy S. Gardner, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, John M. Lounge, Ronald Parise, Robert A. Parker Soyuz and Soyuz/Mir: Musa Manarov, Viktor Afanasyev, Toyohiro Akiyama Mir:Gennady Manakov, Gennady Strekalov |
STS-35, Mir EO-7, Soyuz TM-10-Soyuz TM-11 | USSR USA Japan |
2 December 1990- 10 December 1990 |
| Three-person spacewalk | Pierre J. Thuot, Richard J. Hieb Thomas D. Akers |
STS-49 | USA |
13 May 1992 |
| Time thirteen people in space; no docking | Shuttle: Steve Oswald, William Gregory, John Grunsfeld, Wendy Lawrence, Tammy Jernigan, Sam Durrance, Ron Parise Mir: Aleksandr Viktorenko, Yelena Kondakova, Valeriy Polyakov Soyuz/Mir: Norman E. Thagard, Vladimir Dezhurov, Gennady Strekalov |
STS-67, Mir, Soyuz TM-20, Soyuz TM-21 | USA Russia |
14 March 1995- 18 March 1995 |
| Time ten people in one spacecraft; docking | Robert L. Gibson, Charles J. Precourt, Ellen S. Baker, Bonnie J. Dunbar, Gregory J. Harbaugh, Anatoly Solovyev, Nikolai Budarin, Norman E. Thagard, Vladimir Dezhurov, Gennady Strekalov | STS-71, Mir, Soyuz TM-21 | USA Russia |
29 June 1995- 4 July 1995 |
| Person to complete seven trips to space | Jerry L. Ross | STS-110 | USA |
19 April 2002 |
| Privately funded human space flight | Mike Melvill | SpaceShipOne flight 15P | USA |
21 June 2004 |
[edit] Total time in space
Top 50 space travelers:
| Rank | Person | Days | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergei Krikalev | 804.371 | Russia |
| 2 | Sergei Avdeyev | 747.593 | Russia |
| 3 | Valeri Polyakov | 678.690 | Russia |
| 4 | Anatoly Solovyev | 651.117 | Russia |
| 5 | Alexander Kaleri | 609.911 | Russia |
| 6 | Viktor Afanasyev | 555.772 | Russia |
| 7 | Yury V. Usachev | 553.016 | Russia |
| 8 | Musa Manarov | 541.021 | Russia |
| 9 | Alexander Viktorenko | 489.066 | Russia |
| 10 | Nikolai M. Budarin | 444.060 | Russia |
| 11 | Yuri Romanenko | 430.765 | Russia |
| 12 | Alexander Volkov | 391.495 | Russia |
| 13 | Yuri I. Onufrienko | 389.282 | Russia |
| 14 | Vladimir G. Titov | 387.036 | Russia |
| 15 | Gennady Padalka | 386.592 | Russia |
| 16 | Vasili Tsibliyev | 381.662 | Russia |
| 17 | Valery G. Korzun | 381.653 | Russia |
| 18 | Pavel Vinogradov | 380.678 | Russia |
| 19 | Leonid Kizim | 374.749 | Russia |
| 20 | Michael Foale | 373.763 | USA /  United Kingdom* |
| 21 | Aleksandr Serebrov | 372.954 | Russia |
| 22 | Vladimir Solovyov | 361.952 | Russia |
| 23 | Thomas Reiter | 350.239 | Germany |
| 24 | Talgat Musabayev | 339.409 |  Kazakhstan |
| 25 | Yuri P. Gidzenko | 329.950 | Russia |
| 26 | Yuri Malenchenko | 322.703 | Russia |
| 27 | Gennadi Manakov | 309.889 | Russia |
| 28 | Aleksandr P. Aleksandrov | 309.758 | Russia |
| 29 | Valery Ryumin | 297.924 | Russia |
| 30 | Mikhail Tyurin** | 295+ | Russia |
| 31 | Gennady Strekalov | 268.938 | Russia |
| 32 | Vladimir Lyakhov | 259.563 | Russia |
| 33 | Viktor Savinykh | 252.849 | Russia |
| 34 | Vladimir Dezhurov | 244.229 | Russia |
| 35 | Oleg Atkov | 252.849 | Russia |
| 36 | Carl E. Walz | 230.212 | USA |
| 37 | Leroy Chiao | 229.362 | USA |
| 38 | Daniel W. Bursch | 226.594 | USA |
| 39 | William S. McArthur | 224.930 | USA |
| 40 | Shannon W. Lucid | 223.161 | USA |
| 41 | Valentin Lebedev | 219.250 | Russia |
| 42 | Vladimir Kovalyonok | 216.382 | Russia |
| 43 | Kenneth D. Bowersox | 211.594 | USA |
| 44 | Anatoli Berezovoy | 211.378 | Russia |
| 45 | Susan J. Helms | 211.048 | USA |
| 46 | Jean-Pierre Haigneré | 209.517 |  France |
| 47 | Edward T. Lu | 205.972 | USA |
| 48 | James S. Voss | 202.314 | USA |
| 49 | Salizhan Sharipov | 201.618 | Russia |
| 50 | Leonid Popov | 200.574 | Russia |
[edit] Total human spaceflight time by country
| Rank | Nation | Total person-days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USSR/ Russia |
17,421.32 |
| 2 | USA |
10,036.30* |
| 3 | Germany |
481.24 |
| 4 | France |
384.67 |
| 5 | United Kingdom |
381.65* |
| 6 | Canada |
121.57 |
| 7 | Japan |
102.15 |
| 8 |  Italy |
71.12 |
| 9 |  Switzerland |
42.50 |
| 10 |  Belgium |
19.79 |
| 11 |  Spain |
18.88 |
| 12 | Netherlands |
17.90 |
| 13 |  Israel |
15.93 |
| 14 |  Ukraine |
15.69 |
| 15 |  Bulgaria |
11.91 |
| 16 |  China |
10.519 |
| 17 |  South Africa |
9.893 |
| 18 |  Brazil |
9.888 |
| 19 |  Syria |
8.91 |
| 20 |  Afghanistan |
8.85 |
| 21 | Czechoslovakia |
7.93 |
| 22 |  Austria |
7.928 |
| 23 | Kazakhstan |
7.925 |
| 24 |  Poland |
7.919 |
| 25 |  Slovakia |
7.914 |
| 26 |  India |
7.903 |
| 27 |  Hungary |
7.865 |
| 28 |  Cuba |
7.863 |
| 29 |  Mongolia |
7.863 |
| 30 |  Vietnam |
7.862 |
| 31 |  Romania |
7.862 |
| 32 |  Saudi Arabia |
7.069 |
| 33 |  Mexico |
6.878 |
[edit] Notable unmanned spaceflights
| Body | Spacecraft | Event | Country | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | V2 | First spaceflight |  Germany |
1944 |
| Earth | Sputnik 1 | First satellite in orbit | USSR |
October 4, 1957 |
| Earth | Vanguard 1 | Oldest satellite still in orbit— expected to stay in orbit 240 years. Ceased transmissions in May, 1964 | USA |
March 17, 1958 |
| Moon | Luna 1 | First flyby, dist. of 5,995 km | USSR |
January 4, 1959 |
| Moon | Luna 2 | First impact | USSR |
September 14, 1959 |
| Earth | Discoverer 13 | First satellite recovered from Orbit | USA |
August 11, 1960 |
| Venus | Venera 1 | First flyby, dist. of 100,000 km (lost communication contact before) | USSR |
May 19, 1961 |
| Venus | Mariner 2 | First flyby, dist. of 34,762 km (with communication contact) | USA |
December 14, 1962 |
| Mars | Mariner 4 | First flyby, dist. of 9,846 km | USA |
July 14, 1965 |
| Moon | Luna 9 | First soft landing | USSR |
January 31, 1966 |
| Venus | Venera 3 | First impact | USSR |
March 1, 1966 |
| Moon | Luna 10 | First orbiter | USSR |
April 3, 1966 |
| Venus | Venera 7 | First soft landing | USSR |
August 1, 1970 |
| Moon | Luna 16 | First automated sample return | USSR |
September 24, 1970 |
| Moon | Luna 17 | First automated roving vehicle - Lunokhod 1 | USSR |
November 17, 1970 |
| Mars | Mariner 9 | First orbiter | USA |
November 14, 1971 |
| Mars | Mars 2 | First impact | USSR |
November 27, 1971 |
| Mars | Mars 3 | First soft landing, telemetry signal for 20 s before transmissions ceased |
USSR |
December 2, 1971 |
| Jupiter | Pioneer 10 | First flyby, dist. of 130,000 km | USA |
December 3, 1973 |
| Mercury | Mariner 10 | First flyby, dist. of 703 km | USA |
March 29, 1974 |
| Venus | Venera 9 | First orbiter | USSR |
October 22, 1975 |
| Sun | Helios 2 | Highest velocity of a spacecraft relative to the sun, 247,510 km/h at .29 AU perihelion | West Germany |
April 17, 1976 |
| Saturn | Pioneer 11 | First flyby, dist. of 21,000 km | USA |
September 1, 1979 |
| Venus | Venera 13 | First sound record on another planet | USSR |
March 1, 1982 |
| Venus | Vega 1 | First helium balloon atmospheric probe | USSR |
June 11, 1985 |
| Uranus | Voyager 2 | First flyby, dist. of 81,500 km | USA |
January 24, 1986 |
| Comet Halley | Vega 1 | First comet flyby, dist. of 8,890 km | USSR |
March 6, 1986 |
| Pioneer 10 | First extra-solar spacecraft (disputed because only according to some definitions) | USA |
June 13, 1986 | |
| Neptune | Voyager 2 | First flyby, dist. of 40,000 km | USA |
August 25, 1989 |
| 951 Gaspra | Galileo probe | First asteroid flyby, dist. of 1,600 km | USA |
October 29, 1991 |
| Jupiter | Galileo probe | First impact | USA |
December 7, 1995 |
| Jupiter | Galileo probe | First orbiter | USA |
December 7, 1995 |
| Mars | Mars Pathfinder | First automated roving vehicle - Sojourner | USA |
July 4, 1997 |
| 433 Eros | NEAR Shoemaker | First asteroid orbiter | USA |
February 14, 2000 |
| 433 Eros | NEAR Shoemaker | First asteroid soft landing | USA |
February 12, 2001 |
| Saturn | Cassini orbiter | First orbiter |  ESA USA |
July 1, 2004 |
| Titan | Huygens probe | First soft landing | ESA USA |
January 14, 2005 |
| Comet Tempel 1 | Deep Impact | First comet impact | USA |
July 4, 2005 |
| Voyager 1 | At greatest distance from Earth, 15 billion km | USA |
As of 2006 | |
| Pioneer 6 | Longest operating space probe, brief contact was reestablished on December 8, 2000, after nearly 35 years in space. |
USA |
As of 2005 |
