Last month, a spaceflight record was quietly tied with 20 people in space at the same time. On Jan. 26, the International Space Station (ISS) hosted 11 people, with seven crewmembers and four visitors on the private Ax-3 mission, while three were in China’s Tiangong space station. In addition, six people were aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space plane, which completed a suborbital space mission. Virgin Galactic was also involved in the first time 20 humans were in space at once on May 23, 2023. The record for most people in orbit so far is 17, set in May 2023. Several private space stations are in development, and both NASA and a China-led coalition aim to get people back to the moon over the next decade or so. Furthermore, SpaceX is developing a massive rocket called Starship to help settle both the moon and Mars.
