At least 746 people from 52 countries have traveled to space, according to a visual explainer released for World Space Week, the annual United Nations observance held from October 4 to 10 to celebrate the contribution of space technology to humanity. The figure includes professional astronauts and paying tourists, counted by the Karman line, the 100-kilometer boundary most international bodies use to define the edge of space.
The week marks 69 years since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit Earth, opening the Space Age and setting off a race with the United States. Ten years later, on October 10, 1967, the Outer Space Treaty came into force, establishing that space should be explored and used peacefully and that no country could claim it as territory. The treaty was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.
Two countries still dominate the list of spacefaring nations. The United States has sent 369 people to space, while the Soviet Union and Russia have sent 138 combined. China, the third country to launch people on its own rockets, has sent 29. More than 80 countries have put satellites into orbit, and people from over 50 of those have traveled to space.
Human spaceflight began on April 12, 1961, when Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. On board the Vostok 1 spacecraft, he completed one orbit of Earth at about 27,400 kilometers per hour during a 108-minute flight, later ejecting from the spacecraft and landing by parachute. The mission demonstrated that humans could survive launch, weightlessness and re-entry, giving the Soviet Union a major early victory in the Cold War Space Race.
Less than two years after the Outer Space Treaty entered into force, NASA's Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on its surface.
Space remains a male-dominated frontier. Of the 746 people who have traveled to space, only 112, or 15 percent, have been women, about one in seven. Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel to space in June 1963. The United States did not follow for another 20 years, until Sally Ride flew in June 1983. The share of women is rising, though, largely because of commercial flights. More than half of the women who have flown since 2020 went up as paying passengers or guests on Blue Origin's suborbital rocket.
The typical space traveler is 40. Most people who have flown to space were in their 30s or 40s on their first flight, which together account for 85 percent. Commercial flights have widened that range. The youngest traveler, Oliver Daemen, was 18 when he flew in 2021. The oldest, Ed Dwight, was 90 years and eight months old when he flew in 2024, about two months older than William Shatner had been on his flight three years earlier.
There is no single agreed boundary for where space begins. Most international bodies use the Karman line, 100 kilometers above Earth, while the US military, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration count anyone who flies above 80 kilometers. Either way, it is closer than it sounds: if Earth were the size of an apple, space would begin about as far from the surface as the thickness of its skin.
Looking ahead, the next phase of human spaceflight is already taking shape. In April 2026, the Artemis II crew flew around the moon and reached about 406,771 kilometers from Earth, breaking the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970. Next is Artemis III in 2027, a rehearsal in Earth orbit to test docking with lunar landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA is targeting 2028 for Artemis IV, which aims to land astronauts near the moon's south pole, the first crewed landing since 1972.
India plans its first crewed Gaganyaan flight in 2027, which would make it the fourth country to launch people on its own rocket. China aims to land astronauts on the moon around 2030. Around the world, schools, space agencies, museums and astronomy clubs are marking World Space Week with stargazing nights, science classes, exhibitions and talks by astronauts and scientists.
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