Ever since November 2000, there has always been at least one person in space at all times thanks to the International Space Station. But now, the rise in space tourism and issues faced with Boeing’s Starliner mission mean that there’s a record-breaking number of people in orbit above our planet right now.
It’s been a big couple of weeks for space travel after Boeing’s cursed Starliner capsule returned to Earth after bricking up the ISS for a lot longer than originally planned. When the craft returned to Earth, it left its two astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in orbit where they will await a ride back to terra firma next year.
After that, SpaceX launched a new mission into the atmosphere that offered two privateer astronauts the chance to become the first people to carry out a private space walk. Then today, a new batch of astronauts was sent into orbit on their journey to the ISS, bringing the total number of people in space up to 19, reports Space.com.
That might not sound like that many people, accounting for just 0.000006 percent of the U.S. population, but it’s actually a new record for the number of individuals in orbit at any one time:
Three people launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) today (Sept. 11) aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, pushing the total number of people in Earth orbit to a new high-water mark.
“With the trio now in orbit, there is a record of 19 people currently in orbit,” NASA commentator Anna Schneider said during the agency’s webcast of the Soyuz liftoff. The old record was 17, set last year.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner are onboard the Soyuz that launched this morning. The trio is heading to the ISS to join Wilmore and Williams, as well as NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps. Also onboard the station are cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.
Also in space at this moment are Jared Isaacman, Sarah Gillis, Scott Poteet and Anna Menon who are currently onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after two of its crew became the first private citizens to complete a space walk, reports Reuters:
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, exited first about 6:52 a.m. ET (1052 GMT). After he returned a few minutes later, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, was scheduled to take her turn in space, all their maneuvers streaming live on the company’s website.
“Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said after emerging from the spacecraft, the planet glittering in half shadow below him.
It’s a pretty big milestone for space travel, and one that’s sure to be surpassed pretty quickly as more and more companies latch onto the whole billionaires in space market. We’ve already got Amazon-backed Blue Origin offering flights into orbit, and the company is also working on an extraterrestrial base that could host rich people in the future.
As well as Jeff Bezos’ space brand, there are also all kinds of startups promising billionaires the best view of our burning planet, including one startup relying on balloons to take people into orbit and another planning a luxury getaway in orbit.