New Delhi: On September 16, the human population in space reached a record high number of 14, after four civilians reached Earth orbit aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience Spacecraft, as part of the Inspiration4 mission.
The previous high has been 13.
Currently, 14 astronauts aboard three different spacecraft are in space. Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski and Dr Sian Proctor are the crew members of Inspiration4, who are orbiting the Earth in the Resilience Spacecraft.
Seven people are working at the International Space Station. They are NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur and Mark Vande Hei; Japan's Akihiko Hoshide; Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, and European Space Agency's Thomas Pesquet, according to NASA records.
Tianhe, which is the core module for China's planned space station, Tiangong, has three Chinese astronauts — Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo — aboard as part of the Shenzhou 12 Mission.
NASA congratulated SpaceX for creating history through the Inspiration4 mission, which marks a new era of space exploration.
The human population in space will, however, soon decrease, because the Inspiration4 crew is scheduled to return to Earth after three days, on Sunday, September 19.
The Chinese astronauts are also speculated to return now with September 17 planned as the landing date for the Shenzhou 12 mission, which has completed three months.
The population in space has been 13 many times. For instance, seven astronauts were orbiting Earth aboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour in March 1995, while six astronauts were orbiting Russia's Mir space station during the same period.
The STS 119 and Expedition 18 crew members at the International Space Station, constituted a population of 13 humans in March, 2009.