How many people have been into space?

I was born in 1948, so I was a teenager when the so-called Space Race between the USSR and the USA was at its height. It seemed that, every few months, there was a new first: the first satellite in space, the first dog in space, the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first space walk, the first manned landing on the moon. It was all so exciting. These days, few people seem to bother about space exploration.

But I was thinking recently: how many people have now been into space? According to Wikipedia (which has a list of them all), using the FAI criterion, as of 4 December 2019, a total of 565 people from 41 countries have gone into space. Of the 565, three people completed a sub-orbital flight, 562 people reached Earth orbit, 24 travelled beyond low Earth orbit,  and 12 walked on the moon.

Although the first woman flew into space in 1963 (two years after the first man), it would not be until almost 20 years later (1982) that another flew. Even today, the total number of women who have been into space is only 65.


 




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