SPACEFLIGHT RECORDS

This is a list of 'spaceflight records'. Most of these records relate to human spaceflights, but some unmanned and canine records are included.

Contents

Longest human single flight

Longest continuous occupation of space

Longest solo flight

Longest canine single flight

Longest time on lunar surface

Farthest humans from Earth

Highest altitude for non-lunar mission

Fastest

Oldest

Youngest

Most flights

Most spacewalks

Most spacewalks during a single mission

Human spaceflight firsts

Total time in space

Total human spaceflight time by country

See also

External links

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).

★ Sunita Williams holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 195 days set on the International Space Station Expedition 15 in 2007. Williams also holds the records for most EVAs and most EVA time by a woman.

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. Seven years or 2,556 days will be marked on 31 October 2007. Should the ISS occupation continue as planned, it will break the Mir record on 23 October 2010.

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.

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.

Longest time on lunar surface

★ Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission stayed for 74 hours 59 minutes 40 seconds on the lunar surface after they landed on 11 December 1972.

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.

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).

Fastest

★ The Apollo 10 crew; Thomas Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene Cernan achieved the highest speed relative to earth ever attained by humans; 39,896 km/h (11.1 km/s, 24,790 mph, approx 0.000037 times the Speed of Light).

Oldest

★ John Glenn at age 77, October 29, 1998.

Youngest

★ Gherman Titov, aged 25 years, 329 days, on Vostok 2 on August 6, 1961.

Most flights

★ '7 Flights'

★
★ Franklin Chang-Diaz - Costa Rica/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.

Most spacewalks

★ Anatoly Solovyev, 16 spacewalks for total of 77 hours, 41 minutes (which is also the duration record).

★ Sunita Williams, 4 spacewalks for a total time of 29 hours and 17 minutes (the women's spacewalk and duration records)

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]

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
Spacewalk by woman	Svetlana Savitskaya	Soyuz T-12	USSR	25 July 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  W 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
Non-Soviet, non-American spaceflight	Yang Liwei	Shenzhou 5	China	15 October 2003
Privately funded human space flight	Mike Melvill	SpaceShipOne flight 15P	USA	21 June 2004

Total time in space

Top 50 space travelers:

Rank	Person	Days	Country
1	Sergei Krikalev	804.371	Russia/ USSR
2	Sergei Avdeyev	747.593	Russia
3	Valeri Polyakov	678.690	Russia/ USSR
4	Anatoly Solovyev	651.117	Russia/ USSR
5	Alexander Kaleri	609.911	Russia
6	Viktor Afanasyev	555.772	Russia/ USSR
7	Yury V. Usachev	553.016	Russia
8	Musa Manarov	541.021	Russia/ USSR
9	Alexander Viktorenko	489.066	Russia/ USSR
10	Nikolai M. Budarin	444.060	Russia
11	Yuri Romanenko	430.765	USSR
12	Alexander Volkov	391.495	Russia/ USSR
13	Yuri I. Onufrienko	389.282	Russia
14	Vladimir G. Titov	387.036	Russia/ USSR
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	USSR
20	Michael Foale	373.763	USA / United Kingdom ★
21	Aleksandr Serebrov	372.954	Russia/ USSR
22	Vladimir Solovyov	361.952	USSR
23	Thomas Reiter	350.239	Germany
24	Mikhail Tyurin	344.213	Russia
25	Talgat Musabayev	339.409	Kazakhstan
26	Yuri P. Gidzenko	329.950	Russia
27	Yuri Malenchenko	322.703	Russia
28	Gennadi Manakov	309.889	Russia/ USSR
29	Aleksandr P. Aleksandrov	309.758	USSR
30	Valery Ryumin	297.924	Russia/ USSR
31	Gennady Strekalov	268.938	Russia/ USSR
32	Vladimir Lyakhov	259.563	USSR
33	Michael Lopez-Alegria	257.944	USA
34	Viktor Savinykh	252.849	USSR
35	Vladimir Dezhurov	244.229	Russia
36	Oleg Atkov	252.849	USSR
37	Carl E. Walz	230.212	USA
38	Leroy Chiao	229.362	USA
39	Daniel W. Bursch	226.594	USA
40	William S. McArthur	224.930	USA
41	Shannon W. Lucid	223.161	USA
42	Valentin Lebedev	219.250	USSR
43	Vladimir Kovalyonok	216.382	USSR
44	Kenneth D. Bowersox	211.594	USA
45	Anatoli Berezovoy	211.378	USSR
46	Susan J. Helms	211.048	USA
47	Jean-Pierre Haigneré	209.517	France
48	Edward T. Lu	205.972	USA
49	James S. Voss	202.314	USA
50	Salizhan Sharipov	201.618	Russia

: As of 9 August 2006
: (
★ ) 'Michael Foale' holds dual U.S./British citizenship.
: (
★
★ ) Currently in space.

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	Costa Rica	66.76 ★
10	Switzerland	42.50
11	Belgium	19.79
12	Spain	18.88
13	Netherlands	17.90
14	Israel	15.93
15	Ukraine	15.69
16	Bulgaria	11.91
17	China	10.519
18	South Africa	9.893
19	Brazil	9.888
20	Syria	8.91
21	Afghanistan	8.85
22	Czechoslovakia	7.93
23	Austria	7.928
24	Kazakhstan	7.925
25	Poland	7.919
26	Slovakia	7.914
27	India	7.903
28	Hungary	7.865
29	Cuba	7.863
30	Mongolia	7.863
31	Vietnam	7.862
32	Romania	7.862
33	Saudi Arabia	7.069
34	Mexico	6.878

:As of April 8, 2006
:(
★ ) Dual citizens counted under both nationalities.
:(
★
★ ) and counting
==Notable unmanned spaceflights==

Body	Spacecraft	Event	Country	Date
Earth	A-4(V-2)	First rocket to reach outer space	Germany	October 3, 1942
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
Moon	Luna 3	First image of lunar far-side	USSR	October 7, 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 planetary flyby, dist. of 34,762 km (with communication contact)	USA	December 14, 1962
Mars	Mariner 4	First Mars flyby, first planetary imiging, dist. of 9,846 km	USA	July 14, 1965
Moon	Luna 9	First soft landing, first lunar surface-level image	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

See also

★ Human spaceflight

External links

★ Russia's unmanned moon missions