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Explainer | China is sending 3 more astronauts into orbit on Shenzhou 13. Who and what else is in space?
- Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu are replacing the first crew of three at the Tiangong space station
- Astronauts are being followed into orbit by tourists, with commercial space travel set to increase
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Three Chinese astronauts are set to go into orbit on the Shenzhou 13 spacecraft just past midnight on Saturday, replacing the Tiangong space station’s first crew who returned to Earth in September.
Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu will join a relatively select few. Although more than 500 people have been in Earth’s orbit since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to journey into outer space in 1961, the largest number of people in orbit at the same time has been only 14 – a record set with the launch of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission in September.
Besides the seven-strong crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the 14 people in orbit included three from the Shenzhou 12 mission, who have since returned, and four with the Inspiration4 mission, which stayed in orbit for almost three days and was the first orbital space flight with only private citizens aboard. The previous record of 13 people in space was set in 2009.
Another record was set on Wednesday when Star Trek’s William Shatner, 90, became the oldest person in space with a 10-minute flight in a Blue Origin craft.
So who and what is in space right now? Here’s a quick rundown.
Who is in space at the moment?
As of Thursday, there were 10 people in space – all aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Seven are part of Expedition 65, the 65th long-duration expedition to the ISS which began on April 17 this year. The other three are film director Klim Shipenko, actress Yulia Peresild and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
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