List of human spaceflight programs

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For a chronological list of human spaceflights, including crews..., dates and mission summaries, see List of human spaceflights.

This is a list of human spaceflight programs, including successful programs, programs that were cancelled, and programs planned for the future. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary. The FAI defines spaceflight as any flight over 100 kilometres (62 miles). However, in the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 80 kilometres (50 miles) are awarded astronaut wings.

Until the 21st century, spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. However, with the launch of the privately-funded SpaceShipOne in 2005, a new category of spaceflight programs – commercial spaceflight – arrived.

Programs are sorted by years when their development started, as opposed to first flight of the program.

1 Programs which succeeded
2 Space station programs
3 Space programmes currently in development
4 Programmes cancelled before manned launch

Programs which succeeded

Project Mercury (USA, 1959–1963)

Mercury-Redstone 3 – first US manned spaceflight (suborbital)
Mercury-Redstone 4
Mercury-Atlas 6 – first US manned orbital flight
Mercury-Atlas 7
Mercury-Atlas 8
Mercury-Atlas 9

Vostok programme (USSR, 1960–1963)

Vostok 1 – first manned spaceflight, and first manned orbital spaceflight
Vostok 2
Vostok 3
Vostok 4
Vostok 5
Vostok 6 – first woman in space

Project Apollo (USA, 1961-1975)

Apollo 7 - first human flight of the Apollo Command/Service Module, in low-earth orbit
Apollo 8 – first human flight to orbit the moon
Apollo 9 - first human flight of the Apollo Lunar Module, in low-earth orbit
Apollo 10 - first human flight of project Apollo with all components needed for a moon-landing
Apollo 11 – first human moon landing
Apollo 12
Apollo 13 – explosion en route to Moon forced emergency return to Earth by using free return trajectory
Apollo 14
Apollo 15 - first human mission that used a motorized-wheel vehicle, the Lunar rover, to explore the moon
Apollo 16
Apollo 17 - last human mission to land on the moon in the 20th century
Apollo-Soyuz – first joint Soviet-US mission

X-15 Missions over 100-km (USA, 1963)

Voskhod programme (USSR, 1964–1965)

Voskhod 1 – first multi-crew mission
Voskhod 2 – first EVA (spacewalk)

Project Gemini (USA, 1965–1966)

Gemini 3 - first Orbital Manuever
Gemini 4 – first U.S. EVA
Gemini 5 - first human space-flight to last over a week (8 days).
Gemini 6A – first rendezvous in space, with Gemini 7
Gemini 7 – first rendezvous in space, with Gemini 6A
Gemini 8 – first docking in space, with Agena Target Vehicle
Gemini 9A
Gemini 10 - first human space-flight to use another orbital vehicle to boost orbit height: (Agena target vehicle)
Gemini 11 - highest human orbit of the earth, still holds record as of 2007. First demonstration of artificial gravity created in a microgravity environment.
Gemini 12 - longest EVA of Gemini program

Soyuz programme (USSR/Russia, 1967–ongoing)

Soyuz 1 – crashed on landing, killing lone cosmonaut.
Soyuz 2 – flew unmanned (listed for completeness).
Soyuz 3 – approached, but failed to dock with, Soyuz 2.
Soyuz 4 – docked with Soyuz 5.
Soyuz 5 – two cosmonauts space walked to Soyuz 4, and returned to Earth on that.
Soyuz 6 – orbited in formation, but failed to dock with Soyuz 7 and 8
Soyuz 7 – orbited in formation, but failed to dock with Soyuz 6 and 8
Soyuz 8 – orbited in formation, but failed to dock with Soyuz 6 and 7
Soyuz 9 – record of over 17 days in orbit.
Soyuz 10 – failed to dock with Salyut 1, first space station.
Soyuz 11 – first and only successful flight to Salyut 1; 24 day stay at the station. All three crew dead on landing
Soyuz 12 – two-day test mission of redesigned, two- man version.
Soyuz 13 – further test mission; ultraviolet photography.
Soyuz 14 – first flight to Salyut 3 (military mission)
Soyuz 15 – last flight to Salyut 3; failed to dock with the station (military mission)
Soyuz 16 – test flight for Apollo-Soyuz mission
Soyuz 17 – first flight to Salyut 4; month-long stay on the station
Soyuz 18a – failed to achieve orbit; crew returned safely.
Soyuz 18 – last flight to Salyut 4; two-month stay on the station
Apollo-Soyuz – joint mission with NASA; docked with Apollo spacecraft
Soyuz 21 – first flight to Salyut 5 station; 49- day stay on the station; ended early.
Soyuz 22 – Week spent in orbit, surveying Earth.
Soyuz 23 – failed to dock with Salyut 5 space station, cosmonauts nearly died on landing.
Soyuz 24 – last flight to Salyut 5
Soyuz 25 – failed to dock with Salyut 6
Soyuz 26 – first successful flight to Salyut 6
Soyuz 29 – second long-duration crew of Salyut 6; crew returned on Soyuz 31
Soyuz 31 – crew returned from Salyut 6 on Soyuz 29
Soyuz 34 – launched unmanned as return vehicle
Soyuz 40 – last flight to Salyut 6
Soyuz T-5 – first flight to Salyut 7
Soyuz T-15 – first flight to Mir, also last flight to Salyut 7
Soyuz TM-30 – last flight to Mir
Soyuz TM-31 – first Soyuz flight to ISS, carried first crew to the station
Soyuz TMA-1 – first flight of the new TMA variant

Space Shuttle (USA, 1972-ongoing)

STS-1 – Columbia – first flight for Columbia
STS-6 – Challenger – first flight for Challenger
STS-41-D – Discovery – first flight for Discovery
STS-51-J – Atlantis – first flight for Atlantis
STS-51-L – Challenger – destroyed shortly after liftoff; failed to reach space
STS-49 – Endeavour – first flight for Endeavour
STS-60 – Discovery – flight to Mir Space Station, autonomous
STS-63 – Discovery – flight to Mir Space Station, no docking (Mir-69)
STS-67 – Endeavour
STS-71 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-74)
STS-70 – Discovery
STS-69 – Endeavour
STS-73 – Columbia
STS-74 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-78)
STS-72 – Endeavour
STS-75 – Columbia
STS-76 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-81)
STS-79 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-86)
STS-81 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-88)
STS-84 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-91)
STS-86 – Atlantis – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-94)
STS-89 – Endeavour – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-97)
STS-91 – Discovery – flight to Mir Space Station, docking (Mir-101)
STS-92 – Discovery – 100th Space Shuttle flight
STS-107 – Columbia – disintegrated on reentry
STS-114 – Discovery – Return to Flight Mission

Skylab (USA, 1973-1974)

Tier One (USA (privately funded), 2001-2004)

SpaceShipOne flight 15P – first privately funded human spaceflight
SpaceShipOne flight 16P – first Ansari X Prize competitive flight
SpaceShipOne flight 17P – second Ansari X Prize competitive flight, winning the prize

Shenzhou programme (China, 2003-ongoing)

Shenzhou 5 - first manned Chinese spaceflight
Shenzhou 6 - first multi-day flight of the program, also first flight with more than one crewmember.

Space station programs

(dates refer to periods when stations were inhabited by crews)

Salyut stations (USSR, 1971-1986)
- Salyut 1 (1971, 1 crew and 1 failed docking)
- Salyut 2/Almaz (1973, failed shortly after launch)
- Salyut 3/Almaz (1974, 1 crew and 1 failed docking)
- Salyut 4 (1975-1976, 2 crews)
- Salyut 5/Almaz (1976-1977, 2 crews and 1 failed docking)
- Salyut 6 (1977-1981, 16 crews (5 long duration, 11 short duration) and 1 failed docking)
- Salyut 7 (1982-1986, 10 crews (6 long duration, 4 short duration) and 1 failed docking)
Skylab (USA, 1973-1974, 3 crews)
Mir (USSR/Russia, 1986-1999, 28 long duration crews)
International Space Station (USA, Russia, Japan, Europe, Canada, 2000-ongoing, 15 long duration crews to date)

Space programmes currently in development

Project Constellation (USA, 2004-ongoing)

Project Constellation is NASA's successor to the Space Shuttle. It consists of a family of new spacecraft, launchers and associated hardware that allow for a variety of space mission, from International Space Station resupply, to lunar landings.

Virgin Galactic (UK (privately funded), 2004-ongoing)

Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which is developing spacecraft in conjunction with Scaled Composites to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and later orbital spaceflights to the paying public.

Crew Space Transportation System (ESA/Russia, 2006-ongoing)

Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) is a joint project by the European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) with the objective to design a spacecraft for LEO operations such as servicing the International Space Station, but also capable of exploration of the Moon and beyond.

Indian human spaceflight program (India, 2006-ongoing)

This program aimed India to be new space superpower with plans to launch own astronaut in 2014-2015.

Programmes cancelled before manned launch

Man In Space Soonest (USA, 1957–1958)

United States Air Force program to put an American in orbit. Canceled when NASA was formed in August 1958.

Dyna-Soar (USA, 1957–1963)

The X-20 Dyna-Soar ('Dynamic Soarer') was a United States Air Force program to develop a manned spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites. The program ran from 24 October 1957–10 December 1963, and was canceled just after spacecraft construction had begun.

Manned Orbiting Laboratory (USA, 1963-1969)

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar project. It was announced to the public on the same day that the Dyna-Soar program was cancelled, December 10, 1963. the program was redirected in the mid-1960s and developed as a space station used for reconnaissance purposes. The space station used a spacecraft that was derived from NASA's Gemini program. The project was cancelled on June 10, 1969 before there were any operational flights.

Shuguang (Project 714) programme (China, 1968-1972)

This was the first Chinese manned space programme with plans to launch own astronauts in 1973 without serious technology basis.

Buran program (Soviet Union, 1976-1993)

The Soviet reusable spacecraft program Buran began in 1976 at TsAGI as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program. It had only one orbital flight, an unmanned test, before cancellation.

Piloted FSW programme (China, 1978-1980)

This was the second Chinese manned space programme based on the successful achievement of landing technology (third in the World after USSR and USA) by FSW satellites.