In 1960 no one had ever traveled beyond Earth. More than 700 people have now crossed the 50 kilometer height that was considered the limit of space when spaceflight began. At that time, the Soviet Union and the USA were the only teams, and almost the only players were military men in their 30s. Since then, astronauts have diversified in many ways: men and women from 47 countries have reached space, including residents of every continent, most employed by space agencies and some by private companies. Diversity has not been a simple march, however: in 1963 the USSR launched the first woman into space, but in the following years only five more female cosmonauts flew, and tens of male cosmonauts went up each decade.
The number of space visitors peaked in the 1990s, when NASA flew an average of six space shuttle missions a year, each typically carrying five to seven astronauts. The first shuttle was launched in 1981, but the program went on hiatus for almost three years challenge disaster in 1986. The shuttle fleet was grounded again for more than two years Colombia It broke on the return trip to Earth.
Annual distributions of astronauts sent into space
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The ages of astronauts for each year that people flew into space are shown here. The width of each blob represents the number of flights at each age. Both the average age of astronauts and the age spread have gradually increased over time.
Astronauts sent into space by operators over time
For many years NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, were the only entities in space in the world. The China National Space Administration launched its first astronaut in 2003. After the retirement of NASA’s space shuttles in 2011, NASA purchased transportation for its astronauts on private spaceships from Russia and then the United States.
Astronauts by Citizen Region and Gender, by Decade
The black and white line separates the decades of space travel. Within each zone, the number of space travelers is shown for each geographic region, broken down by gender (males in solid colors, females in dashes).
Mission data for astronauts
Each tile represents an individual space plane. The colors and tile symbols indicate each person’s nationality, gender, number of missions, duration in space, type of flight, and public or private status. White lines mark problems encountered and astronauts killed during space missions, and white circles represent astronauts in space at press time (December 2024).
