At almost any moment, around ten people are living in space, split between two stations: the International Space Station and China's Tiangong. This page explains where humans are in space today, which vehicles carry them there, and which crewed missions from 2024 to 2026 mattered most, from Boeing Starliner's troubled test flight to Artemis II's trip around the Moon.
Who is in space right now? Crews rotate every few months, so for the exact names on a given day, use the ISS pages of NASA or ESA and China's CMSA announcements. This page covers the structure that stays stable and the recent missions with their dates.
Where People Live in Space
International Space Station
The ISS has been continuously crewed since 2 November 2000, more than a quarter of a century. It normally hosts a long-duration crew of about seven: astronauts arriving on SpaceX Crew Dragon (NASA's Crew rotation flights, which also carry ESA, JAXA and other partner astronauts and, under a seat-swap agreement, a Russian cosmonaut) and cosmonauts arriving on Russia's Soyuz (which carries one NASA astronaut in exchange). Private missions run by Axiom Space add a few people for a couple of weeks at a time. NASA plans to operate the ISS through 2030 and then de-orbit it.
Tiangong
China's station has been continuously crewed since June 2022. Three taikonauts at a time live aboard for about six months, arriving on Shenzhou spacecraft, with brief overlaps at handover when six are aboard.
So the usual count of people in orbit is about ten, rising to the mid-teens when a private mission or crew handover overlaps. Suborbital flights, such as Blue Origin's New Shepard, cross the 100 km line for a few minutes and are not usually counted as being "in space" at any given time. More on both stations, and what comes after them, in Space Stations.
The Vehicles That Carry Crews
- SpaceX Crew Dragon — the only American vehicle flying operational crews, used for NASA rotations and private flights. See Falcon 9 and Dragon.
- Soyuz — Russia's capsule, flying since 1967. See Soyuz.
- Shenzhou — China's crew vehicle, serving Tiangong.
- Orion — NASA's deep-space capsule, which carried its first crew on Artemis II in April 2026.
- Boeing Starliner — flew one crewed test flight in 2024 and has not yet been certified for operational crews. See Boeing Starliner.
- In development — India's Gaganyaan, China's Mengzhou (intended for both low orbit and lunar missions), and SpaceX's Starship.
Key Crewed Missions, 2024–2026
- 5 June 2024 — Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams fly Starliner to the ISS. Thruster and helium problems lead NASA to return the capsule empty in September 2024. Full story.
- 10–15 September 2024 — Polaris Dawn. A privately funded Crew Dragon flight commanded by Jared Isaacman reaches an orbit with a high point of about 1,400 km, the farthest humans had travelled from Earth since Apollo, and performs the first commercial spacewalk.
- 28 September 2024 – 18 March 2025 — Crew-9. Launched with two crew to leave room for Wilmore and Williams, who returned with it after about 286 days in space.
- 31 March – 4 April 2025 (US time) — Fram2. The first crewed flight over Earth's poles, in a private Crew Dragon mission, which also made the first Dragon crew splashdown in the Pacific.
- 25 June – 15 July 2025 — Axiom Mission 4. A private ISS mission commanded by Peggy Whitson that carried the first astronauts from India (Shubhanshu Shukla) to the ISS, and the first from Poland and Hungary in more than four decades.
- November 2025 — Shenzhou-20 debris strike. China found a small crack in a window of the Shenzhou-20 return capsule, apparently from space debris. The crew came home in the newer Shenzhou-21 capsule, and China launched Shenzhou-22 without a crew as a replacement lifeboat for the station.
- November 2025 — Soyuz MS-28. The crew reached the ISS normally, but the launch damaged the service structure at Baikonur's Site 31, Russia's only pad for crewed launches, requiring repairs.
- January 2026 — Crew-11 returns early. NASA brought the Crew-11 astronauts home ahead of schedule because of a medical issue affecting one crew member, an unusual step for a station crew rotation. NASA did not publicly identify the crew member or the condition.
- 1–10 April 2026 — Artemis II. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen fly around the Moon in Orion, the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Full mission write-up.
What Comes Next for Human Spaceflight
- Artemis — NASA has reshuffled the missions after Artemis II more than once. In early 2026 it announced a plan in which Artemis III becomes a crewed test flight in Earth orbit, targeted for 2027, to practise docking with the commercial lunar landers, and the first landing moves to Artemis IV, targeted for 2028. Check NASA's Artemis pages for the current plan. See Human Landing Systems.
- Commercial stations — Vast's Haven-1, Axiom Station, Starlab and Orbital Reef are all intended to keep crews in low Earth orbit after the ISS retires. Their dates have slipped repeatedly.
- India — ISRO plans uncrewed Gaganyaan test flights before its first crewed flight, which it has said it is aiming for in 2027.
- China — China says it aims to land taikonauts on the Moon before 2030 using the Long March 10 rocket, the Mengzhou spacecraft and the Lanyue lander.
Frequently Asked Questions
What crewed space missions are happening right now?
Long-duration crews are aboard the International Space Station, rotating every few months on SpaceX Crew Dragon and Russian Soyuz flights, and aboard China's Tiangong station, rotating on Shenzhou spacecraft. Short private missions and suborbital flights happen in between.
How many people are in space right now?
Usually about ten: roughly seven on the ISS and three on Tiangong. The number rises temporarily during crew handovers and private missions.
What was the most recent crewed mission beyond Earth orbit?
Artemis II, which flew four astronauts around the Moon from 1 to 10 April 2026. Before that, the last crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit was Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Which spacecraft can carry astronauts today?
SpaceX Crew Dragon, Russia's Soyuz, China's Shenzhou and NASA's Orion are flying. Boeing's Starliner flew one crewed test flight in 2024 but has not been certified for operational missions.