SpaceX Crew-3 Launch: NASA Says More Than 600 People, Including 5th Indian Astronaut, Have Visited Space

NASA statistics said that the number of humans who have gone to space had surpassed 600. It came after four astronauts were sent into space by a SpaceX rocket on Wednesday night.

According to NASA (via ABC News), Matthias Maurer of Germany earned the No. 600 spot based on his mission assignment. He and his three NASA crewmates are expected to arrive at the space station in less than 24 hours, despite being more than a week late.

The count began in 1961 when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth. Alan Shepard became the second person and the first American to journey to space less than a month later.

US-SPACE-SPACEX-INSIRATION4 — The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Inspiration4 crew launches from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 15, 2021. - The Inspiration4 mission, the first to send an all-civilian crew to orbit, will venture deeper into space than the International Space Station. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

Spacex Crew Launch Marks 600 Space Travelers

The crew's sequence of mission specialist designations defined Maurer's place as No. 600, The New York Times explained. No. 599 will be Raja Chari, a NASA astronaut and the commander of Crew-3. Maurer will be mission specialist 1. Kayla Barron, another NASA astronaut, will be mission specialist 2.

The 600-strong list includes astronauts from the United States and Russia who have spent a year or more in orbit, as well as individuals who have only scraped the surface of space, such as actor William Shatner last month. This year's influx of space travelers pushed the total to above 600.

In recent years, the number of individuals who have traveled to space has climbed. This trend is projected to continue as a market for private spaceflight flights with affluent tourists develops. The number includes short suborbital flights, such as the Blue Origin launch in July that transported Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and former CEO, and three other passengers to the edge of space.

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The number of possibilities for affluent individuals to fly to space is growing, thanks to companies like Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and maybe even suborbital balloons. China's Tiangong space station, which is now being built in orbit and is anticipated to be completed in 2022, may allow even more humans to enter space.

Fifth Indian Astronaut Flies to Space

Meanwhile, News18 said Raja Chari is the fifth Indian-descent astronaut to fly into space.

He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a bachelor's degree in Astronautical Engineering. Chari also got his Master's Degree in Aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and led the 461st Flight Test Squadron. New York Times said he performed combat flights in Iraq as a colonel in the Air Force.

In December, he was chosen as a team member for NASA's Artemis program, making him eligible for future moon trips. He will command the Crew-3 mission on Wednesday's departure to the International Space Station. It will be his first trip into space.

Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to visit space in 1984. Sharma was selected for a combined Soviet-Indian spaceflight after training as a pilot in the Indian Air Force. The operation took eight days to complete.

India's ambitious space program wants to expand into human spaceflight. Its maiden launch might happen as soon as the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. So far, four astronauts have been chosen for the program, who underwent training in Russia this year but have yet to be announced. The first crewed launch is scheduled to include three of the trainees.