Aboard the Russian Soyuz capsule, a historic flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 11 marked a new milestone, as a group of space travelers became the largest-ever group of humans to inhabit space, with a total of 19 individuals living and working in orbit.

This unprecedented feat surpasses all previous records, as humanity celebrates the largest-ever congregation of individuals residing in space at the same time.

The mission brought together NASA astronaut Don Pettit and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, who joined nine individuals already on board the space lab: NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Barry Wilmore, and Suni Williams, and cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.

In addition, three individuals — Li Cong, Li Guangsu, and Ye Guangfu — are on board China’s Tiangong space station, and a four-person crew is on board the Crew Dragon Resilience, part of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission. The four include civilians Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Jared Isaacman. Notably, Gillis and Isaacman conducted a historic first-ever civilian spacewalk on September 12.

However, this remarkable achievement is tempered by the fact that two members of the record-breaking group aboard the ISS, Wilmore and Williams, were initially scheduled to return to Earth aboard Boeing’s Starliner vessel. Unfortunately, unexpected propulsion issues left them stranded in space before they were boarded with the ISS crew. The Starliner was sent back to Earth solo, and the two will return aboard a SpaceX vessel.

The previous record of humans in space, 17, was set last year, following the successful launch of the three-person team aboard China’s Shenzhou 16 mission.

For more information on this historic milestone, visit https://carsnewstoday.com/science/space-odyssey-reaches-new-heights-nasa-celebrates-historic-milestone-with-unprecedented-human-presence-in-orbit/.