On September 19, the Roscosmos state corporation announced the death of the USSR pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union and
April 12, 1961 humanity becamespace view when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into orbit and made a 106-minute flight high above the Earth. The cosmos, like any other new area, from the very first day has become an area in which previously unprecedented events are constantly taking place.
So Gagarin set a unique record -first man in space. As technology improves, humanity can do more and more, and over the years people have established many other achievements.
Longest flight
Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov spent almost438 consecutive days aboard the Mir space station from January 8, 1994 to March 22, 1995. This is the longest permanent stay in space, which for almost three decades no one has been able to overcome. According to Roskosmos, Polyakov's research helped prove that the human body is ready not only for flights to near-Earth orbit, but also for missions into deep space.
Humans spent only three more times in spaceyear, and all three flights were made to the Mir station. In 1998-1999 and 1987-1988, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev and Soviet pilots Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov worked on the orbital complex for just over a year: 379.6 and 365.9 days, respectively.
American astronauts have not yet achieved thisduration. Mark Thomas Vande Hei, a participant in 64-66 missions to the International Space Station, spent the longest time in space. He went into space on April 9, 2021, together with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Navitsky and Pyotr Dubrov.
After completing their first six-month stay at Vande Hai and Dubrov, they decided to stay for another six months and returned to Earth on March 30, 2022. In total, they spent 353.2 days in space.
But the record holder among women isAmerican astronaut Christina Koch. In 2019-2020, during her first and so far only flight, she spent 328.6 days in space, beating Peggy Whitson's previous record by 39.5 days. The results of NASA's Koch long-term mission are being used to study the physical, biological and mental effects of long-term space travel on women.
Unlike American women in the domesticThere are still very few women in astronautics. Since the first flight of Valentina Tereshkova, only five Russian and Soviet pilots have been in space, along with actress Yulia Peresild. Among them, Elena Kondakova remained the longest in space. In 1994-1995, she worked at the Mir station for a little over 169 days.
International Space Station
Longest in space
The record belongs to cosmonaut Gennady Padalka,who spent a total of just over 878 days in space over five flights. This is almost two and a half years (2 years 4 months 3 weeks 5 days) spent flying around the Earth at a speed of about 28,164 km/h.
Among women, she was the longest in space.NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has spent more than 665 days in orbit as of September 2022. Interestingly, this is also the record for the most cumulative time among all Americans.
Unlike Padalka, which has already been released onretirement, Whitson continues to work and may even improve the result. For example, she has been named captain of the private SpaceX AX-2 mission, which will take tourists to the ISS in early 2023.
Crew Dragon 2 is approaching the ISS. Image: NASA
The most "mass event" in space
Although for all the time since the beginning of the space age inOnly about 600 people have been in space, and sometimes it gets quite crowded. In 2009, 13 people gathered on board the ISS for the first time. Although this number is considered unlucky, everything went well for the mission.
In July 2009, Space Shuttle Endeavora crew of seven people docked with the station, on board of which there were already six members of the mission. Although during further flights of the shuttle it was also crowded at the station more than once, so far it has not been possible to beat the record.
But in Earth orbit in September 2021it turned out to be 14 people at once, though they were all scattered in their spaceships and could not meet. This happened when the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission entered Earth orbit. The Crew Dragon crew of four joined the seven members of the mission to the ISS and three Chinese taikonauts at the Tiangong station.
And just a few months later - in December of thatsame year - there were already 19 people in space, though not in orbit, but at an altitude exceeding 100 km, and only for a few minutes. This happened when the New Shepard spacecraft made a suborbital flight with six tourists on board during a mission changeover to the ISS.
SpaceX Inspiration4 mission launch. Photo: U.S. Space Force Photo by Staff Sgt. JT Armstrong, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Farthest from Earth and longest in an alien world
The record for the greatest distance from Earth holdsfor more than four decades. In April 1970, the crew of NASA's Apollo 13 mission orbited the far side of the Moon at a distance of 254 km from the satellite. During the mission, the astronauts were 400,171 km from Earth.
And in December 1972, Harrison Schmitt and EugeneCernan, part of NASA's Apollo 17 mission, spent just under 75 hours on the surface of the moon—more than three days. So far, this is the longest stay of a person in a strange world. In addition, the astronauts made three lunar trips, the total duration of which was more than 22 hours.
Perhaps the astronauts stayed so longbecause it was suspected that humanity would not return to the moon for a long time and would not even go beyond the limits of low earth orbit. Apollo 17 was NASA's last lunar mission.
Eugene Cernan on the Moon. Image: NASA
It is expected that both of these records will be able to be broken by the Artemis mission, which should be tested in test mode this year, and next year with the participation of a crew, but without landing on the Earth satellite.
Not only NASA, but other space agenciescountries are actively working to reopen space for humanity, to deliver people first to the moon, then to Mars, and maybe to other planets of the solar system or their satellites. If everything works out, there will be many more extreme records ahead.
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