Who else is stuck in space? A short history of spaceflight

NASA astronauts Butch Willmore and Suni Williams weren’t the first to run in space, and their 9½ month missions have not reached a endurance record.

However, there was no quick trip that quickly changed over such a long distance.

The pair was launched last June on a test flight of Boeing’s new Starliner Crew Capsules, and we thought it was gone for eight days. By the time they splashed out on SpaceX on Tuesday, they had been spending 286 days from the planet.

“Mathematically, looking at it at the percentage of the original planning mission, this is the largest expansion rate,” said NASA Space Operations Chief Ken Bowersox.

A former astronaut, Bowersox saw the mission of his own space station suddenly extended. He was there with Dom Petit, who is currently in the lab on orbit, when Shuttle Colombia fell apart during his re-entry in 2003.

“The reason we stayed on missions for so long was terrible,” said Bowersox, who plans to stay for more than five months, for four months.

With cool Space Flight Statistics, take a look at others who have found themselves stuck in space, whether they’re an option or not.

The longest US spaceflight

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio saw his mission twice as long from six to 12 months after his assigned Russian Soyuz capsule was hit by micrometeorite while his assigned Russian Soyuz capsule was docked to the space station and leaking all the coolant. In 2023, replacement capsules were launched to bring Rubio and his two Russian crew into the house. His 371-day spaceflight is the longest by the Americans. Scott Kelly was the first NASA astronaut. He recorded 340 days at the Space Station in 2015 and 2016. His identical twin brother, US Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona, also served as a NASA astronaut on a short shuttle flight.

The world’s longest space flight

Russian astronaut Valery Polikov spent 14½ months at the Mir Space Station in the mid-1990s. He volunteered for it. As a doctor, he wanted to observe changes in the human body and mind over a long period of weightlessness. His 437-day space flight remains a world record. Polikov passed away in 2022 at the age of 80.

Longest space flight by a woman

NASA’s Christina Koch holds the title in 2019 and 2020 for 328-day space station missions. On the same flight, she played the first All-Femer spaceship with Jessica Meia. Koch is currently assigned to NASA’s first Artemis crew. This will soon return to the moon next year.

Most experiences in space

Last year, Russia’s Oleg Kononenko became the first person to break 1,000 days of space over the course of his career. By the time he returned from the space station last fall, he had recorded incredible heights of 1,111 days in five space flights. This is the total for over 3 years. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is America’s most experienced space flyer in 675 days at three long station stints and one short individual trip for axiom spaces. She plans to lead another axiom crew to the space station later this spring. Due to a delay in homecoming, Williams moved to second place in the 608-day space on three missions.

A record of a woman’s spaceship

Williams has become the world’s most experienced female spaceship thanks to her long-term mission. She ventured twice earlier this year for station repairs and maintenance, bringing the spaceship’s career total to 62 hours. On more than three space station missions, she ran nine spacecraft, one less than Whitson. However, Whitson’s spacecraft was short, totaling 60 hours.

Overall outer space record

Retired Russian astronaut Anatoly Soloviev holds the overall record on 16 spacecrafts, totaling around 80 hours. NASA’s Spaceship Champion has retired astronaut Michael Lopez Elgria, and has 10 spacecrafts for a total of 67 hours.

Number of space travelers

According to NASA tally, 721 people are flying in space, including short hops and tourists from military X-15 pilots. Of that total, 102 are women. The first person in the universe was Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union on April 12, 1961. The first American Mercury astronaut Alan Shepherd was followed on May 5, 1961. The first woman in the universe was Valentina Teleskova of the Soviet Union in 1963.

Current number of NASA astronauts

NASA counts 47 on the list of active astronauts. Twenty are women. This does not include some astronauts who have moved to space agency management.

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