For A Few Minutes On December 11, There Were 19 People In Space — Highest So Far

Blue Origin's NS-19 mission lasted roughly 11 minutes, during which there were 19 persons in space, a record high, aboard different spacecraft.

Blue Origin's NS-19 crew (top left)(Photo: Blue Origin); Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and production assistant Yozo Hirano (top right) (Photo: AFP); Expedition 66 astronauts (bottom left) (Photo: NASA); Shenzhou 13 astronauts (bottom right) (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: On December 11, the human population in space reached a record high number of 19, after six passengers blasted off into space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, as part of the NS-19 mission.

The 19th New Shepard mission was suborbital, like previous crewed spaceflight missions of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. 

Previously, the human population in space reached a record high number of 14 on September 16, when four civilians reached Earth orbit as part of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission.

The NS-19 mission lasted roughly 11 minutes, during which there were 19 persons in space, aboard different spacecraft. The NS-19 crewmembers, which included Laura Shepard Churchley, Michael Strahan, Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, Lane Bess, and Cameron Bess, soared to an altitude of 106 kilometres, just beyond the Karman line, aboard a New Shepard capsule with six seats.

During those 11 minutes, 13 more people were in space, in two different space stations that are still orbiting Earth. These include Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his production assistant Yozo Hirano, and veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, who arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on December 9 aboard a Russian-built Soyuz capsule. They docked into the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS. The mission marked the first self-funded space tourism mission to the ISS in a decade. Misurkin is the commander of the 12-day mission. 

Other astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory include NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who reached the ISS on November 11, as part of the NASA SpaceX Crew-3 mission. They joined NASA astronaut Mark T Vandei Hei, and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov. All of them are a part of Expedition 66. 

The other people in space are three Chinese astronauts who flew to the Tiangong space station, a space station constructed by China in low Earth orbit, on October 15, as part of the Shenzhou 13 mission. They are Chinese taikonauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu. Zhigang is the first Chinese national to walk in space, and is the commander of Shenzhou 13, the first Chinese three-person crew in space. Yaping is the second Chinese female taikonaut and the first Chinese woman to travel twice in space. She became the first Chinese woman to perform an extravehicular activity in space.

The human population in space decreased to 13 following the return of the NS-19 crew to Earth.