Countries in Space: Who Has Sent People Beyond Earth, From Gagarin to Gaganyaan

Pakistan readies China’s first foreign astronaut Planned

Two Pakistan Air Force pilots have trained in Beijing for a short stay on China’s Tiangong station, under an agreement the countries reached in 2019. Pakistani media reported in late September that the final choice was expected in mid-to-late October. When one flies, China will be giving a seat to a foreign national for the first time, a role the Soviet Union played from 1978.

Why it matters: Pakistan is already on the list (Namira Salim, 2023), so this adds no new country, but it adds a third national provider of rides.

Gaganyaan G1: India’s uncrewed test Planned

ISRO is preparing G1, the first orbital test of the Gaganyaan crew module, carrying the half-humanoid robot Vyommitra. ISRO chairman V. Narayanan said in June 2026 that G1 was expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, after a crew-module air-drop test on 10 April and Vyommitra’s integration from 28 April. The first crewed flight has slipped to 2027.

The goal: up to three astronauts in a roughly 400-km orbit for up to three days, then a safe return. Success would make India the fourth country to launch its own crew.

Hong Kong’s first space traveller Milestone

Lai Ka-ying, a 43-year-old Hong Kong police superintendent with a doctorate in computer science, launches on Shenzhou 23 as a payload specialist with commander Zhu Yangzhu and Zhang Zhiyuan. The crew dock at Tiangong on 25 May.

How lists count it: Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China and Lai is a Chinese citizen, so she does not add a new country. Some lists show her under Hong Kong anyway.

Artemis II: a Canadian goes around the Moon

NASA’s Artemis II launches on 1 April 2026 with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, flies around the Moon and splashes down in the Pacific off San Diego. Hansen becomes the first person who is not American to leave low Earth orbit.

Shubhanshu Shukla reaches the ISS Partner ride

Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla pilots Axiom Mission 4, launched from Kennedy Space Center on 25 June with Peggy Whitson, Poland’s Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Hungary’s Tibor Kapu. He becomes the first Indian on the ISS and the second in orbit, 41 years after Rakesh Sharma. NASA called it a 20-day spaceflight; splashdown is on 15 July.

Correction: he was not the second Indian citizen in space. Counting suborbital flights he was the third, after Gopichand Thotakura on Blue Origin in May 2024.

Six new nationalities in three months Commercial

On 1 April the private Fram2 mission makes the first crewed polar orbit. Its commander, Jannicke Mikkelsen, is Norway’s first astronaut; its financier Chun Wang, Chinese-born with Maltese and St Kitts citizenship, flies under the Malta flag. Blue Origin then flies the Bahamas’ Aisha Bowe (14 April), Panama’s Jaime Alemán and New Zealand’s Mark Rocket (31 May), and Nigeria’s Owolabi Salis (29 June).

The result: the standard nationality list reaches 55 by the end of June 2025.

Turkey and Belarus join; the first Indian tourist Commercial

Alper Gezeravcı flies to the ISS on Axiom Mission 3, a SpaceX Dragon flight, as Turkey’s first astronaut. Two months later Marina Vasilevskaya becomes Belarus’s first on Soyuz MS-25. On 19 May entrepreneur Gopichand Thotakura rides Blue Origin’s NS-25, the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian citizen above the Kármán line.

Egypt, Portugal, Antigua, Pakistan Suborbital

On 4 August 2022 Blue Origin’s NS-22 carries Sara Sabry, Egypt’s first, and Mário Ferreira, Portugal’s first. In 2023 Virgin Galactic flies Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers of Antigua and Barbuda (10 August) and Namira Salim of Pakistan (6 October). All four countries reach space only on suborbital hops lasting minutes.

Private spaceflight opens a new door Commercial

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin fly their founders in July, and SpaceX’s Inspiration4 puts the first all-civilian crew in orbit. In October Blue Origin’s NS-18 carries Chris Boshuizen, counted as Australia’s first; Australian-born Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas had flown earlier as US citizens.

The UAE’s first astronaut Partner ride

Hazza Al Mansouri flies to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz for an eight-day mission, the first astronaut from the Arabian Peninsula since 1985. The UAE later flew Sultan Al Neyadi for six months on a SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2023.

Brazil, Malaysia, South Korea Partner ride

Paid or bartered Russian Soyuz seats fly Marcos Pontes of Brazil (30 March 2006), Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor of Malaysia (10 October 2007) and Yi So-yeon of South Korea (8 April 2008). In between, Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari becomes the first Iranian-born woman in space as a Soyuz tourist.

China launches its own astronaut Own rocket

Yang Liwei orbits Earth 14 times in about 21 hours. China becomes the third country to launch a person on its own spacecraft and rocket, 42 years after the first two. Its programme later builds the Tiangong station, completed in 2022.

Why it matters: every other new nationality on this page flew on someone else’s vehicle.

The ISS era begins

The first ISS module, Russia’s Zarya, launches on 20 November 1998. Continuous crews start in November 2000. The station turns the five partner agencies into the main route to orbit for European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts, and later for private Axiom crews.

Europe fills in, the USSR breaks up Partner ride

Austria’s Franz Viehböck flies on Soyuz in October 1991. Belgium (1992), Italy and Switzerland (both on STS-46, 1992), Ukraine (1997) and Spain (1998) fly on the Shuttle; Slovakia’s Ivan Bella on Soyuz in 1999. In March 1992 Aleksandr Kaleri and Aleksandr Viktorenko become the first to launch as citizens of the new Russia.

Correction: France was not part of this wave. Jean-Loup Chrétien flew in 1982.

Japan and the UK buy in Commercial

Japanese broadcaster TBS pays for journalist Toyohiro Akiyama to fly to Mir on Soyuz TM-11. Five months later chemist Helen Sharman becomes Britain’s first on Soyuz TM-12, through Project Juno, a private British consortium, not the government. Both are early examples of seats being sold.

The first Arab in space Partner ride

Saudi prince Sultan bin Salman flies as a payload specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery, which deploys the Arabsat-1B satellite. 1985 also brings the Netherlands’ Wubbo Ockels and Mexico’s Rodolfo Neri Vela on the Shuttle.

Rakesh Sharma: India in orbit Partner ride

Indian Air Force Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma launches from Baikonur with Yury Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov and works aboard Salyut 7, including Earth-observation and yoga experiments. Asked by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi how India looked from space, he replied ‘Saare Jahan Se Achcha’. India is the 14th nationality in space.

Canada’s Marc Garneau follows on 5 October 1984, aboard the Shuttle.

The Shuttle starts carrying foreigners Partner ride

West German physicist Ulf Merbold becomes the first non-American on a NASA flight, flying the first Spacelab mission. Over the next 15 years the Shuttle carries the first astronauts of twelve countries.

Correction: Merbold was West Germany’s first, not Germany’s. East Germany’s Sigmund Jähn flew in 1978.

Interkosmos opens Soyuz to allies Partner ride

On 2 March 1978 Czechoslovakia’s Vladimír Remek launches on Soyuz 28, the first person in space from neither superpower. Poland’s Mirosław Hermaszewski (June) and East Germany’s Sigmund Jähn (August) follow, then Bulgaria (1979), Hungary, Vietnam and Cuba (1980), Mongolia and Romania (1981) and France (Jean-Loup Chrétien, June 1982).

Two superpowers, three firsts Own rocket

Yuri Gagarin completes one orbit on Vostok 1 in about 108 minutes. Twenty-three days later Alan Shepard makes a 15-minute suborbital flight on Freedom 7. Gherman Titov spends a full day in orbit in August 1961; John Glenn becomes the first American in orbit on 20 February 1962.

Correction: Glenn’s flight came nine months after Shepard’s, not 23 days.