Roscosmos

This astronaut visited the International Space Station.

ISS Visitor

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

Soyuz TMA-14M

Soyuz TMA-14M ferried three members of the Expedition 41 crew to the International Space Station.

Soyuz is a human-carrying capsule built and operated by Russia, capable of transporting up to three people to the Space Station at a time. It has been upgraded numerous times since its first use in the 1960s for the Soviet lunar program and was the only crewed vehicle for the Station from 2011 to 2020.

Soyuz

Yelena Serova

Russia

NASA

Boeing

SpaceX

SpaceX Crew-9

United States of America

SpaceX launched a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the ISS aboard Dragon. Due to technical issues with Boeing's Starliner, Crew-9 launched with two empty seats to accommodate the return of Boeing's Starliner crew.

Crew Dragon is the first privately built and operated orbital spacecraft capable of flying humans. As a reusable SpaceX capsule, it transports crew members to and from the International Space Station. It will also carry paying customers to the Station and low Earth orbit. While it typically accommodates a crew of four, this number can vary depending on the mission.

Crew Dragon

Starliner Crew Flight Test

NASA, Boeing, and ULA launched their first crewed Starliner mission. It carried two NASA astronauts to the ISS.

Starliner is Boeing’s orbital human carrier, designed and built for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. It will transport at least four crew members to and from the Station and will also be available for missions with paying customers.

Starliner

STS-129 (Atlantis)

The 31st flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis delivered 12,532 kg of spare parts and components to the International Space Station. Randy Bresnik became a father while flying this mission. His Space Shuttle and ISS crewmates congratulated him with candy cigars, as smoking is not permitted on the ISS. This marked the second and most recent time two people of African descent flew a mission together.

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

Barry "Butch" Wilmore

Soyuz TMA-21

Soyuz TMA-21 ferried three members of the Expedition 27 crew to the International Space Station.

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