17 people in space at the same time: This is a record

As of today, after the launch of the Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft, a new record was set in the number of people in Earth orbit.

Shenzhou-16 space mission launches today

Currently, there are 17 people in orbit: six Chinese nationals, three Russians, five Americans, two Saudi Arabian representatives and one person from the United Arab Emirates. The previous record for the number of people in orbit was set on September 16, 2021. At that time, there were 14 people in orbit at the same time. The previous record was broken in 1995 when there were 13 people in orbit.

The China Manned Space Flight Programming Authority (CMSA) reported that the Long March 2F rocket was launched for the Shenzhou-16 mission at 9:31 am Beijing time from Jiuquan space base in northern China. About 10 minutes later, the spacecraft left the rocket and entered the target orbit. Members of the Shenzhou-15 expedition will return to Earth in early July.