Record 19 People Currently Orbiting Earth

The latest arrivals to the ISS and a historic private spacewalk contribute to the highest number of humans in orbit simultaneously.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the ISS, bringing the total number of people in orbit to 19.
This surpasses the previous record of 17 people in orbit, set in May 2023.
SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission includes the first-ever spacewalk by private astronauts, with Scott Poteet and Sarah Gillis making history.
The ISS currently hosts 12 astronauts and cosmonauts, while China's Tiangong Space Station has three taikonauts onboard.
The Polaris Dawn mission also marks the furthest a crewed vehicle has flown from Earth since the Apollo program.