Topic summary

List of human spaceflights

List of human spaceflights

This is a list of all crewed spaceflights throughout history. Beginning in 1961 with the flight of Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, crewed spaceflight occurs when a human crew flies a spacecraft into outer space. Human spaceflight is distinguished from spaceflight generally, which entails both crewed and uncrewed spacecraft.

There are two definitions of spaceflight. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping body, defines the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space at 100 kilometres (62 mi) above sea level. This boundary is known as the Kármán line. The United States awards astronaut wings to qualified personnel who pilot a spaceflight above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km).

As of the launch of Soyuz MS-29 on 14 July 2026, there have been 415 human spaceflights.

  • Three of these were launched without crew but returned crew to Earth after damage to the crew's original vehicle. These were Soyuz 34, Soyuz MS-23 and Shenzhou 22.
  • Two missions did not cross either the Kármán line or the U.S. definition of space and therefore do not qualify as spaceflights. These were the fatal STS-51-L (Challenger disaster), and the non-fatal aborted Soyuz mission T-10a.
  • Two non-fatal aborted missions crossed either the Kármán line or the U.S. definition of space. One was the Soyuz mission MS-10, which did not reach the Kármán line but did pass the 80 km (50 mi) line. The other was the Soyuz mission 18a, which crossed the Kármán line.
  • Four missions successfully achieved human spaceflight, yet ended as fatal failures as their crews died during the return. These were Soyuz 1, X-15 flight 191, Soyuz 11, and STS-107 (Columbia disaster).
  • Twenty four flights in total reached an apogee beyond 80 kilometres (50 mi), but failed to go beyond 100 kilometres (62 mi), so therefore do not qualify as spaceflights under the FAI definition.