Human spaceflight

Human Spaceflight

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Human spaceflight

A human spaceflight is a spaceflight

Spaceflight

Spaceflight is the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spacecraft into and through outer space.Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and telecommunications satellite....
with a human crew

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a List of human spaceflight programs to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike robotic space probe

Space probe

A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe....
s or remotely-controlled satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s. Human spaceflight is sometimes called manned spaceflight, a term now deprecated by major space agencies in favor of its gender-neutral

Gender-neutral language in English

Gender neutrality in English language is language use that aims at minimizing assumptions regarding the gender, or biological sex, of human referents....
alternative.

As of 2008 human spaceflights are being actively launched by the Soyuz programme

Soyuz programme

The Soyuz programme ; ) is a human spaceflight programme that was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. It was originally part of a Moon landing programme intended to put a Soviet astronaut on the Moon....
conducted by the Russian Federal Space Agency

Russian Federal Space Agency

The Russian Federal Space Agency , RKA, or RSA, formerly the Russian Aviation and Space Agency , is the government agency responsible for Russia's space science programme and general aerospace research....
, the Space Shuttle program

Space Shuttle program

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System , is the United States government's current Human spaceflight launch vehicle....
conducted by NASA

NASA

Shenzhou program

The Shenzhou program is a manned spaceflight initiative by the People's Republic of China. The program put the first Chinese citizen into orbit on 15 October 2003....
conducted by the China National Space Administration

China National Space Administration

The China National Space Administration is the national List of space agencies of the People's Republic of China responsible for the national Chinese space program....
.

Prehistory
The ancient Indian epics

Indian epic poetry

Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent. Originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into Kannada, Tamil language and Hindi, it includes some of the oldest epic poetry ever created and some works form the basis of Hindu scripture....
, Mahabharata
Mahabharata

The is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetrys of History of India, the other being the '. The epic is part of the Hindu itihasa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
and Ramayana, feature mythical Vimana

Vimana

A vimana is a Sanskrit word with several meanings ranging from temple or palace to mythological flying machines described in Sanskrit epics....
flying machines that were able to fly within the Earth's atmosphere, and able to travel into space and travel submerged under water.

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Encyclopedia

A human spaceflight is a spaceflight

Spaceflight

Astronaut

Space probe

Satellite

Gender-neutral language in English

Soyuz programme

Russian Federal Space Agency

Space Shuttle program

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System , is the United States government's current Human spaceflight launch vehicle....
conducted by NASA

NASA

Shenzhou program

China National Space Administration

The China National Space Administration is the national List of space agencies of the People's Republic of China responsible for the national Chinese space program....
.

History

Prehistory

The ancient Indian epics

Indian epic poetry

Vimana

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
n satirist named Lucian

Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was an Assyrian people rhetorician, and satire who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature....
wrote a book on space flight called True Histories. The book was full of tall, unbelievable tales and travelogues on visits to the sun and the moon. Today, the book could easily be discarded as the fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
of a people of a bygone era. But it was significant in the sense that it kindled the curiosities of the people of the day and stimulated interest in outer space and space travel.

During the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, several stories within

Story within a story

A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. Mise en abyme is the French language term for a similar literary device ....
the One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) feature fantastic tales of human spaceflight. For example, "The Adventures of Bulukiya" features the protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main Character of a drama or Narrative. The word "protagonist" derives from the Greek language p??ta????st?? , "one who plays the first part, chief actor." In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the othe...
Bulukiya journeying to the Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is a location described in the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam , and his wife, Eve , lived after they were created by God....
and to Jahannam

Jahannam

Jahannam is the Islamic equivalent to Gehenna, or hell. Its name is similar to the Hebrew language word Gehenna, from which it derives. According to the Qur'an only God knows who will go to Jahannam and who will go to Jannah....
, and travelling across the cosmos

Cosmos

In its most general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from a Greek language term ??s??? meaning "order, orderly arrangement, ornaments," and is the antithetical concept of chaos....
to different worlds much larger than his own world, anticipating elements of galactic science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
. "The Ebony Horse" features a robot

Robot

A robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an Electromechanics which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has Intention or Agency of its own....
in the form of a flying mechanical horse controlled using keys that could fly into outer space

Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
and towards the Sun. "The Ebony Horse" can be considered an early example of proto-science fiction.

The 10th century Japanese narrative

Japanese literature

Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia. Early works were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese....
, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a 10th century Japanese folklore, also known as The Tale of Princess Kaguya . It is considered the oldest extant Japanese literature....
, may also be considered proto-science fiction. The protagonist of the story, Kaguya-hime

Hime

is the Japanese language word for princess or a lady of nobility. Note that although "princess" is usually given as the translation, daughters of a monarch are actually referred to by other terms, e.g....
, is a princess from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and is found and raised by a bamboo cutter in Japan. She is later taken back to the Moon by her real extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
family. A manuscript illustration depicts a round flying machine similar to a flying saucer

Flying saucer

Flying saucer is the name given to a type of unidentified flying object with a disc- or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting...
.

American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
author Herbert S. Zim claimed in 1945 that there is a Chinese legend where a scientist named Wan Hu

Wan Hu

According to legend , W?n Hu or W?n H? was a minor China official of the Ming dynasty who attempted to become the world's first recorded "astronaut"....
(d. 1500) in the early Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling Dynasties in Chinese history of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty....
attempted to travel through space with the help of rockets. However, the account is unsourced, and no known Chinese account exists. In the story, Wan tied 47 rockets filled with explosives to the chair in which he was sitting and ignited them. There was a large explosion, but when the smoke cleared Wan Hu was gone and never seen again.

First human spaceflights

The first human spaceflight was undertaken on April 12, 1961, when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet Union cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth....
made one orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 1

Vostok 1

Vostok 1 was the first human spaceflight. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961, taking into space Yuri Gagarin, a astronaut from the Soviet Union....
spacecraft, launched by the Soviet space program

Soviet space program

The Soviet space program consisted of initiatives within the Soviet Union by competing design groups. Being primarily a military program, it was classified....
and designed by the rocket scientists Sergey Korolyov

Sergey Korolyov

Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov , , , was the head Soviet Union rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race between the United States of America and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s....
and Kerim Kerimov

Kerim Kerimov

Kerim Aliyevich Kerimov was an Azerbaijani Soviet Union rocket scientist, one of the founders of the Soviet space industry, and for many years a central figure in the Soviet space program....
. Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova , is a retired Soviet Union astronaut and was the first woman to fly in outer space, aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963....
became the first woman in space on board Vostok 6

Vostok 6

Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Data was collected on the female body's reaction to spaceflight....
on June 16, 1963. Both spacecraft were launched by Vostok 3KA launch vehicles. Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk when he left the Voskhod 2

Voskhod 2

Voskhod 2 was a Soviet Union manned space mission in March 1965. It established another space milestone when one of the astronauts on board became the first person to "Extra-vehicular activity"....
on March 8, 1965. Svetlana Savitskaya

Svetlana Savitskaya

Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya is a former Soviet Union female aviator and astronaut who flew the Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space some 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova....
became the first woman to do so on July 25, 1984.

The United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
became the second nation (and for four decades, one of only two) to achieve manned spaceflight, with the suborbital flight of astronaut

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a List of human spaceflight programs to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Alan Shepard

Alan Shepard

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was the second person and the first United States in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the List of Apollo astronauts....
aboard Freedom 7, carried out as part of Project Mercury

Project Mercury

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth....
. The spacecraft was launched on May 5, 1961 on a Redstone rocket. The first U.S. orbital flight was that of John Glenn

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn Jr. is a former astronaut who became the third person and first American to orbit the Earth, and later, United States Senate....
aboard Friendship 7, which was launched February 20, 1962 on an Atlas rocket. Since April 12, 1981 the U.S. has conducted all its human spaceflight missions with reusable Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
s. Sally Ride

Sally Ride

Sally Kristen Ride is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut who, in 1983, became the first American woman and youngest American to enter Low Earth orbit....
became the first American woman in space in 1983. Eileen Collins

Eileen Collins

Eileen Marie Collins is a retired United States astronaut and a retired United States Air Force Colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle program....
was the first female Shuttle pilot, and with Shuttle mission STS-93

STS-93

STS-93 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of Space Shuttle Columbia, and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight....
in July 1999 she became the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft.

The People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
became the third nation to achieve human spaceflight when Yang Liwei

Yang Liwei

Y?ng L?wei is a People's Republic of China major general and military pilot and a China National Space Administration astronaut. He was the first man sent into space by the space program of China, and his mission, Shenzhou 5, made the PRC the third country to independently send people into space....
launched into space on a Chinese-made vehicle, the Shenzhou 5

Shenzhou 5

Shenzhou 5 ? was the first human spaceflight mission of the People's Republic of China , launched on October 15, 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F rocket booster....
, on October 15, 2003. This flight made China the third nation capable of launching its own manned spacecraft using its own launcher. Previous European (Hermes

Hermes (shuttle)

Hermes was a proposed spaceplane designed by the French Centre national d'?tudes spatiales in 1975, and later by the European Space Agency, which was superficially similar to the US X-20....
) and Japanese (HOPE-X

HOPE-X

HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and National Airspace Laboratory of Japan , started in the 1980s....
) domestic manned programs were abandoned after years of development, as was the first Chinese attempt, the Shuguang spacecraft

Shuguang spacecraft

Shuguang One , meaning "dawn" in Standard Mandarin, also known as Project 714 , was the first manned spacecraft proposed by the People's Republic of China during the late 1960s and early 70s that was never built....
.

The furthest destination for a human spaceflight mission has been the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
, and as of 2008 the only missions to the Moon have been those conducted by NASA

NASA

Apollo 8

Apollo 8 was the first manned space voyage to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first manned voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body....
, orbited the Moon but did not land. The first Moon landing mission was Apollo 11

Apollo 11

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Apollo program and the third human voyage to the Moon....
, during which -- on July 20, 1969 -- Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He is List of Apollo astronauts#People who have walked on the Moon Moon....
became the first person to set foot on the Moon. Six missions landed in total, numbered Apollo 11–17

Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the eleventh Human spaceflight in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch of a United States human spaceflight and the sixth and final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program....
, excluding Apollo 13

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was the third manned lunar-landing mission, part of Project Apollo under NASA in the United States. The crew members were Commander Jim Lovell, Command Module pilot Jack Swigert, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W....
. Altogether twelve men reached the Moon's surface, the only humans to have been on an extraterrestrial body. The Soviet Union discontinued its program for lunar orbiting and landing of human spaceflight missions on June 24, 1974 when Valentin Glushko

Valentin Glushko

Valentin Petrovich Glushko was a Soviet Union engineer, and one of the three principal Soviet "Chief Designers" of spacecraft and rockets during the Soviet/American Space Race....
became General Designer of NPO Energiya.

The longest single human spaceflight is that of Valeriy Polyakov

Valeriy Polyakov

Valeriy Vladimirovich Polyakov is a Russian cosmonaut. He holds the record for the longest spaceflight in human history,staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip....
, who left earth on January 8, 1994, and didn't return until March 22, 1995 (a total of 437 days 17 hr. 58 min. 16 sec. aboard). Sergei Krikalyov has spent the most time of anyone in space, 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 seconds altogether. The longest period of continuous human presence in space lasted as long as 3,644 days, eight days short of 10 years, spanning the launch of Soyuz TM-8

Soyuz TM-8

Soyuz TM-8 was the eighth expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir....
on September 5, 1989 to the landing of Soyuz TM-29

Soyuz TM-29

CrewLaunched:*Viktor M. Afanasyev - *Jean-Pierre Haigner? - *Ivan Bella - Landed:*Viktor M. Afanasyev - *Sergei Avdeyev - *Jean-Pierre Haigner? - ...
on August 28, 1999.

For many years beginning in 1961, only two countries, the USSR (later Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
) and United States, had their own astronauts. Later, cosmonauts and astronauts from other nations flew in space, beginning with the flight of Vladimir Remek

Vladimír Remek

Vladim?r Remek is the first Czechoslovakia in space , and the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet space program or the NASA. As of 2004, with the entry of the Czech Republic into the European Union Vladim?r Remek is considered to be the first European Astronaut....
, a Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east....
, on a Soviet spacecraft on March 2, 1978. , citizens from 33 nations (including space tourists

Space tourism

Space tourism is the recent phenomenon of Tourism paying for Human spaceflight into space pioneered by Russia.As of 2009, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport....
) have flown in space aboard Soviet, American, Russian, and Chinese spacecraft.

Space programs

As of 2007, human spaceflight missions have been conducted by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
(/Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
), the United States

United States

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
and by the private spaceflight company Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites , formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is an aerospace Aerospace manufacturer currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan....
.

Several other countries and space agencies have announced and begun human spaceflight programs by their own technology, including India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
(ISRO), Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
(JAXA), Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
(ISA

Iranian Space Agency

The Iranian Space Agency is Iran's governmental space agency.The president of Iranian Space Agency is one of the deputies of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology....
), Malaysia

Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
(MNSA) and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
.

Currently the following spacecraft

Spacecraft

A spacecraft is a Craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters outer space then returns to the Earth....
and spaceport

Spaceport

A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. In rocketry, major spaceports often include more than one launch complex, each of which may have more than one launch pad....
s are used for launching human spaceflights:

Soyuz
Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia....
with Soyuz launch vehicle
Soyuz launch vehicle

The Soyuz is an expendable launch system manufactured by TsSKB-Progress in Samara, Russia. It is used as the launcher for the manned Soyuz as part of the Soyuz program....
—Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tjuratam, is the world's first and largest operational Spaceport. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station....
Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
—Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
International Space Station
International Space Station

The International Space Station is a research facility Assembly of the International Space Station in outer space. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015....
(ISS)—Assembled in orbit; crews transported by the previous two spacecraft
Shenzhou spacecraft
Shenzhou spacecraft

Shenzhou is a spacecraft developed by the People's Republic of China to support its manned spaceflight program. Its design is based on the Russia Soyuz spacecraft, but is larger....
with Long March rocket—Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is a People's Republic of China space vehicle launch facility in the Gobi desert, Ejina Banner , Alashan League , Inner Mongolia, located about 1,600 km from Beijing....

Historically, the following spacecraft

Spacecraft

A spacecraft is a Craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters outer space then returns to the Earth....
and spaceport

Spaceport

Vostok
Vostok spacecraft

The Vostok was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space programme for human spaceflight....
—Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tjuratam, is the world's first and largest operational Spaceport. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station....
Mercury
Project Mercury

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth....
—Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
Voskhod
Voskhod spacecraft

The Voskhod was a spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space program for human spaceflight . It was a development of and a follow-on to the Vostok spacecraft....
—Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tjuratam, is the world's first and largest operational Spaceport. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station....
X-15—Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base

Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, California and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley....
, (two internationally recognized suborbital flights in program)
Gemini
Project Gemini

Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It operated between Projects Project Mercury and Project Apollo, with 10 manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
—Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
Apollo
Apollo spacecraft

The Apollo spacecraft was designed as part of the Project Apollo, by the United States in the early 1960s to land men on the moon before 1970 and return them safely to earth....
—Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
Salyut
Salyut

The Salyut program was the first space station program undertaken by the Soviet Union, which consisted of a series of nine single-module space stations launched over a period of eleven years from 1971 to 1982....
space station—Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tjuratam, is the world's first and largest operational Spaceport. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station....
Almaz
Almaz

The Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
space station—Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tjuratam, is the world's first and largest operational Spaceport. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station....
Skylab
Skylab

Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit, and the second space station ever visited by a human crew. The 100 ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979, and it was visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974....
space station—Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States....
Mir
Mir

Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
space station—Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tjuratam, is the world's first and largest operational Spaceport. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station....
SpaceShipOne with White Knight—Mojave Spaceport
Mojave Spaceport

The Mojave Air & Space Port , also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Center, is located in Mojave, California, at an elevation of ....

Numerous private companies attempted human spaceflight programs in an effort to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize

Ansari X Prize

The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a United States dollar10,000,000 prize for the first Non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spaceflight into outer space twice within two weeks....
. The first private human spaceflight took place on June 21, 2004, when SpaceShipOne

SpaceShipOne

SpaceShipOne is a spaceplane that completed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004. It was developed by Scaled Composites....
conducted a suborbital flight. SpaceShipOne captured the prize on October 4, 2004, when it accomplished two consecutive flights within one week.

Most of the time, the only humans in space are those aboard the ISS, whose crew of three spends up to six months at a time in low Earth orbit

Low Earth orbit

A Low Earth Orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the Locus extending from the Earth?s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2,000 km above the Earth surface....
.

NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
and ESA now use the term "human spaceflight" to refer to their programs of launching people into space. Traditionally, these endeavors have been referred to as "manned space missions".

National spacefaring attempts

Successful manned programs are in bold.

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Country	Space agency	National term	First launched astronaut	Date	Spacecraft	Launcher
USSR	Soviet space program Soviet space program The Soviet space program consisted of initiatives within the Soviet Union by competing design groups. Being primarily a military program, it was classified....	cosmonaut (Russian: ?????????)	Yuri Gagarin Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet Union cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth....	April 12, 1961	Vostok 1 Vostok 1 Vostok 1 was the first human spaceflight. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961, taking into space Yuri Gagarin, a astronaut from the Soviet Union....	Vostok Vostok rocket The Vostok rocket was a derivative of the Soviet Union R-7 rocket ICBM designed for the human spaceflight Vostok programme but later used for other satellite launches....
United States United States The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...	National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....	astronaut	Alan Shepard Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was the second person and the first United States in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the List of Apollo astronauts....	May 5, 1961	Mercury-Redstone 3 Mercury-Redstone 3 Mercury-Redstone 3 was a United States Mercury program manned space mission launched on May 5, 1961 using a Redstone , from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida....	Redstone
China China China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....	China space program	yuhángyuán, hángtianyuán	...	(1973), abandoned	Shuguang 1 Shuguang spacecraft Shuguang One , meaning "dawn" in Standard Mandarin, also known as Project 714 , was the first manned spacecraft proposed by the People's Republic of China during the late 1960s and early 70s that was never built....	Long March 2A
China China China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....	China space program	yuhángyuán, hángtianyuán	...	(1981), abandoned	Piloted FSW Fanhui Shi Weixing Fanhui Shi Weixing is a series of Chinese space program recoverable reconnaissance satellites. The satellites were designed for both military and civilian observation needs, with a total of 26 flights....	Long March 2
ESA	European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Agency The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmentalism organisation dedicated to the Space exploration, currently with 18 member states....	astronaut	...	(1999), abandoned	Hermes Hermes (shuttle) Hermes was a proposed spaceplane designed by the French Centre national d'?tudes spatiales in 1975, and later by the European Space Agency, which was superficially similar to the US X-20....	Ariane V
Japan Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....	Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The , or JAXA, is Japan national aerospace agency. JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution through the merger of three previously independent organizations....	...	...	(2003), abandoned	HOPE-X HOPE-X HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and National Airspace Laboratory of Japan , started in the 1980s....	H-II H-II The H-II rocket was a Japanese launch vehicle, which flew seven times between 1994 and 1999, with five successes. It was developed by NASDA in order to give Japan a capability to launch larger satellites of the 1990s....
China China China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....	China National Space Administration (CNSA) China National Space Administration The China National Space Administration is the national List of space agencies of the People's Republic of China responsible for the national Chinese space program....	taikonaut, yuhángyuán, hángtianyuán	Yang Liwei Yang Liwei Y?ng L?wei is a People's Republic of China major general and military pilot and a China National Space Administration astronaut. He was the first man sent into space by the space program of China, and his mission, Shenzhou 5, made the PRC the third country to independently send people into space....	October 15, 2003	Shenzhou 5 Shenzhou 5 *Shenzhou 5* ? was the first human spaceflight mission of the People's Republic of China , launched on October 15, 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F rocket booster....	Long March 2F
India India India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....	Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation is the primary body for space research under the control of the government of India. It was established in its modern form in 1969 as a result of coordinated efforts initiated earlier....	gaganaut, antariksha yaatri, brahmonaut	...	(2015), planned	ISRO Orbital Vehicle ISRO Orbital Vehicle The Indian manned spacecraft temporary named as Orbital Vehicle intend to be the basis of indigenous Indian human spaceflight program. The capsule will be designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with a rendezvous and docking capability....	GSLV Mk III
ESA	European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Agency The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmentalism organisation dedicated to the Space exploration, currently with 18 member states....	astronaut	...	(2018), planned	ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency . ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments.... evolution	Ariane V
Japan Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....	Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The , or JAXA, is Japan national aerospace agency. JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution through the merger of three previously independent organizations....	?????	...	(2020), planned	...	...
Iran Iran Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....	Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Iranian Space Agency The Iranian Space Agency is Iran's governmental space agency.The president of Iranian Space Agency is one of the deputies of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology....	faza navard (Persian: ???????)	...	(2020), planned	...	N/A
Iraq Iraq Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....	...	???? ????	...	(...), planned	...	Tammouz 2 or 3
Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....	...	astronot, gökmen	...	(...), planned	...	...
Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....	Malaysian National Space Agency (MNSA)	Angkasawan	...	(...), planned	...	...
North Korea North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula....	Korean Committee of Space Technology (KCST)	...	...	(...), planned	...	...

Safety concerns

Planners of human spaceflight missions face a number of safety concerns.

Life support

The immediate needs for breathable air and drinkable water are addressed by the life support system

Life support system

In human spaceflight, the life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in outer space. NASA often uses the phrase Environmental Control and Life Support System or the acronym ECLSS when describing these systems for its human spaceflight missions....
of the spacecraft.

Medical issues

Effects of microgravity

Medical data from astronauts in low earth orbits for long periods, dating back to the 1970s, show several adverse effects of a microgravity environment: loss of bone

Bone

Bones are rigid organ that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They function to move, support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red blood cell and white blood cells and store minerals....
density, decreased muscle strength and endurance, postural instability, and reductions in aerobic capacity. Over time these deconditioning

Deconditioning

Deconditioning is adaptation of an organism to less demanding environment, or, alternatively, the decrease of physiological adaptation to normal conditions....
effects can impair astronauts’ performance or increase their risk of injury.

In a weightless environment, astronauts put almost no weight on the back muscle

MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
s or leg muscles used for standing up. Those muscles then start to weaken and eventually get smaller. If there is an emergency at landing, the loss of muscles, and consequently the loss of strength can be a serious problem. Sometimes, astronauts can lose up to 25% of their muscle mass on long term flights. When they get back to ground, they will be considerably weakened and will be out of action for a while.

Astronauts experiencing weightlessness will often lose their orientation, get motion sickness

Motion sickness

Motion sickness or kinetosis is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement....
, and lose their sense of direction as their bodies try to get used to a weightless environment. When they get back to Earth, or any other mass with gravity, they have to readjust to the gravity and may have problems standing up, focusing their gaze, walking and turning. Importantly, those body motor disturbances after changing from different gravities only get worse the longer the exposure to little gravity. These changes will affect operational activities including approach and landing, docking, remote manipulation, and emergencies that happen by landing. This is a big problem for mission success.

Radiation damage to the immune system

Another factor is that extended space flight might slow down the body’s ability to protect itself against diseases. Some of the problems are a weakened immune system

Immune system

An immune system is a collection of biological processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumour cells....
and the activation of dormant virus

Virus

A virus is a Optical microscope#Limitations of light microscopes infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell . Viruses infect all cellular life....
es in the body. Radiation

Radiation

In physics, radiation describes any process in which energy emitted by one body travels through a medium or through space, ultimately to be absorbed by another body....
can cause both short and long term consequences to the blood marrow stem cells which create the blood and immune systems. Because the interior of a spacecraft is so small, a weakened immune system and more active viruses in the body can lead to a fast spread of infection.

Isolation

When on long missions, astronauts will have to go through the isolation and confinement of a space environment. People isolated for a long time can go into all sorts of kinds of depression

Depression (mood)

In the fields of psychology and psychiatry, the terms depression or depressed refer to sadness and other related emotions and behaviours. It can be thought of as either a disease or a syndrome....
that can ruin the mission’s success. Not only do astronauts have to be almost totally isolated from the rest of the world, but they have virtually nowhere to move around. That can also cause some depression.

When on long missions, astronauts will not be able to quickly return to Earth if a medical emergency occurs. For example, a scientist working in the south pole found a lump in her breast and had to wait two months before a helicopter could come in. In space, even that is not an option. When a medical emergency happens, the astronauts have to rely on the crew and the computers to solve the problem.

Human spaceflight

History

Prehistory

First human spaceflights

Space programs

National spacefaring attempts

Safety concerns

Life support

Medical issues

Effects of microgravity

Radiation damage to the immune system

Isolation

Launch safety

Reentry safety

Reliability

See also

External links