Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in 1961, and over 600 people traveled to Space since then. However, only three countries are currently capable of human spaceflight with the rockets to achieve this.
Only the United States Of America, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic Of China currently have a human spaceflight program, with orbital launch facilities and multi-stage rockets that can carry humans to Space and into orbit and safely return them to Earth.
Over the last couple of decades, rocket launches have become almost an “everyday occurrence,” with approximately 135 orbital launches taking place each year. However, a very small percentage of these flights are crewed (carry humans).
At the time of writing, approximately 11 countries across the world have launch facilities and orbital rockets capable of reaching Space and putting a spacecraft into orbit. But as the following sections will illustrate, only three of them are capable of human spaceflight.
(Learn more about the most widely used orbital launch sites around the world and the countries operating them in this article.)
The Three Countries With Human Spaceflight-Capable Programs
Currently, only the United States Of America, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic Of China have a human spaceflight program, with launch facilities and orbital rockets that can carry humans to Space and into orbit around Earth.
Russia was the first to achieve this feat when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (from the then Soviet Union) reached Space on 12 April 1961. The United States followed on 5 May 1961 with astronaut Alan Shephard. China reached this milestone on 15 October 2003 with Yang Liwei.
Although some type of rocket propulsion has been around for centuries and has been used for entertainment (fireworks) and military weapons (missiles), it was only during the latter part of the 20th Century that nations seriously started working toward spaceflight.
As the upcoming sections will illustrate, all three countries capable of human spaceflight only successfully and routinely started sending humans into Space and orbit towards the end and after the turn of the Century.
The American Human Spaceflight Program
As stated in the previous section, the United States Of America was the second country to successfully put a man in Space. It currently has the biggest number of launch facilities and rockets capable of orbital flight in the world.
Most crewed space launches and all other space-related activities are coordinated by the National Aeronautics And Space Administration, better known as NASA, which is an independent agency and part of the US federal government.
Its major launch facilities include Cape Canaveral Space Force Base & Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska.
However, currently, only Kennedy Space Center in Florida has the facilities and is used to send astronauts/cosmonauts to Space. And the only vehicle currently used is SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule, launching from Launch Complex 39A.
A Short Summary Of The US Space Program
Although rockets date back as far as 1232 when the Chinese Song dynasty used “fire arrows” containing gunpowder during conflicts with the Mongols, the real drive to put an American astronaut in Space didn’t start in all earnest until the period following World War II.
Several scientists already experimented with different rocket designs & propellants during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. American engineer and physicist Robert H Goddard is considered by many industry experts as the man who ushered in the era of spaceflight.
Not only did he successfully launch the first liquid-fueled rocket on 16 March 1926, but he also held several patents for different rocket concepts, including those for multi-stage rockets. Unfortunately, he didn’t receive much recognition until some time after his death.
However, the real concerted effort to get launch vehicles and astronauts into Space and orbit the Earth only started in the period following World War II, after the Allied Forces used the captured German scientists responsible for creating the V2 rocket used by Germany.
After the former Soviet Union successfully launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit around Earth in 1957, the Space Race between the former Soviet Union and the United States unofficially started.
In 1958, it led to the formation of the National Aeronautical And Space Administration (NASA), a part of the Federal Government tasked with running the United States Space Program, which still forms the backbone of the US space industry today.
Shortly after Yuri Gagarin’s first spaceflight, the United launched its first astronaut into Space. On 5 May 1961, Alan Shephard launched aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket (a modified Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and became the second human in Space.
On 20 February 1962, astronaut John Glenn followed in his compatriot’s footsteps and launched aboard a Mercury-Atlas rocket, not only reaching Space but also managing to complete three orbits of the Earth before splashing down in the North Atlantic Ocean.
On 12 September 1962, then-president John F Kennedy delivered a speech in which he publicly set the goal of putting astronauts on the Moon and returning them safely before the end of the decade. (NASA’s Apollo Program was to carry out this ambitious objective.)
This goal was achieved in 1969 when a Saturn 5 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Lunar Surface on 20 July 1969.
Following the Apollo Program, no further missions to the Moon took place. Instead, NASA focused on reusable launch vehicles that could take humans into Low Earth Orbit. It led to the Space Transport System (STS), better known as the Space Shuttle Program.
The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first shuttle launched on 12 April 1981 & the program operated trouble-free until the Challenger shuttle exploded shortly after liftoff. The program was put on hold for 32 months after the accident.
The shuttle program was extended beyond its planned lifespan, primarily to assist with the completion of the International Space Station (ISS), whose construction was way behind schedule at this point.
The final space shuttle launch took place on 8 July 2011 when the shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, marking the end of the program. Unfortunately, not before another tragedy when the Columbia spacecraft broke up during re-entry in 2003.
For almost a decade after the last shuttle flight, the United States lost the capacity to put a human in Space, with no human-rated launch vehicle available to carry astronauts. During this time, they had to hitch a ride aboard Russian Soyuz rockets launched from Kazakhstan.
On 30 May 2020, the United States regained the ability for human spaceflight when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, carrying astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Currently, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft is the only human-rated orbital launch vehicle certified to carry astronauts and launch from US soil.
Orbital Rockets Used By The United States For Human Spaceflight
The first orbital rockets used by the United States were nothing more than modified Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), which were already developed as nuclear weapons during the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
For example, the Mercury-Redstone rocket that carried Alan Shephard to Space was essentially a modified Redstone ballistic missile, while the Mercury-Atlas vehicle in which John Glenn orbited the Earth was derived from an SM-65D Atlas missile ballistic missile.
The first orbital rocket that was designed from the ground up as an orbital launch vehicle to carry humans to Space was the Saturn V, famous for being the first rocket and spacecraft to carry humans to the Moon and return them safely to Earth.
After the cancellation of the Apollo Program (which used the Saturn V rocket), NASA turned its focus to developing a low-cost reusable launch vehicle with quick turnaround times, ushering in the Space Shuttle era with its Space Transport System (STS).
The Space Shuttle was a reusable launch vehicle that lifted off like a rocket with the assistance of two solid rocket boosters, but the obiter also had wings and a tail fin that allowed it to glide back to the Earth’s surface and land like a conventional aircraft.
The Space Shuttle Program ran from 1981 to 2011 but was canceled due to persistent cost overruns and slow turnaround times. As previously mentioned, the United States was left without a human-rated launch vehicle for almost a decade after the last shuttle flight.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft is currently the only human-rated orbital launch vehicle certified to carry astronauts and launch from US soil.
(Private space companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin provide suborbital flights for “space tourists” with their SpaceShipOne and Blue Shephard spacecraft, respectively, but these vehicles can only reach the edge of Space and are not capable of orbital flight.)
The Russian Human Spaceflight Program
Russia has the bragging rights of putting the first human into Space. On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to reach Space when his Vostock rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome and completed one orbit of the Earth.
It was also the first country to launch a woman into Space in 1963 when Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first and youngest woman to orbit the Earth 48 times on a solo mission. (Several other records in spaceflight are detailed in the next section).
This took place when Russia and other East Block Countries still formed part of the former Soviet Union, which was involved in the well-documented Space Race with the United States.
Currently, the Russian human spaceflight program is operated by the state-run Federal Space Agency, better known as Roscosmos.
Its primary launch facility for crewed spaceflight is the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, for which Russia has a lease until 2050.
Although Russia has several launch facilities capable of orbit rocket launches, its primary launch complexes situated within the country’s borders are the Plesetsk and Vostochny Cosmodromes.
The orbital launch vehicle used for all current crewed spaceflights is the Soyuz rocket, considered by many to be the most successful launch vehicle ever produced and a real workhorse of the space industry.
A Short Summary Of The Russian Space Program
Like the United States, the Soviet Union’s space program didn’t really gain momentum until the start of the Cold War after the end of World War II. However, several important innovations and pioneers preceded this period.
In the late 19th and early 20th Century, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published several important papers about astronautics theory, including the well-known Rocket Equation, and also came up with the concept of the multi-stage rocket in 1929.
He is considered by many as one of the founding fathers of astronautics. One can view him as the Russian equivalent of US physicist Robert H Goddard who, as mentioned earlier, also pioneered several inventions and concepts in rocketry during the same period.
Following the end of World War II, however, the Soviet Space Program really took off. Like the United States, they worked closely with German scientists who were involved with the development of the V2 rocket used by Germany during the war.
The collaboration with German scientists played a pivotal role in accelerating the program, and a number of breakthroughs followed in short succession. On 4 October 1957, a Sputnik 8K71PS (a modified R7 missile) launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit.
This milestone was followed by the first animal to reach Space when a dog named Laika was launched on 3 November 1957 aboard Sputnik 2 and carried into Low Earth Orbit.
Arguably, the most significant breakthrough, though, occurred on 12 April 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to reach Space when his Vostock rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome and completed one orbit of the Earth.
Several other records followed, including the first woman in Space, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, in 1963, the first space walk by cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov in 1965, and the first spacecraft (Luna 2) to reach the surface of the Moon.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian space program was initially run by the Russian Space Agency, which was restructured into the Russian Aviation And Space Agency in 1994 and again in 2004 as the Federal Space Agency, known as Roscosmos.
Orbital Rockets Used By Russia For Human Spaceflight
Currently, only the Vostok rocket that carried the first human Yuri Gagarin, and later the first woman Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova to Space, and its derivative, the Soyuz rocket, were capable of crewed missions.
The Soyuz rocket has evolved over the years and is still the primary launch vehicle used for crewed spaceflight by Roscosmos. Currently, all crewed Soyuz missions only launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
(Both the Vostok and Soyuz rockets are derived from the R-7a Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, also known as the 8K74.)
The Chinese Human Spaceflight Program
China was the third country to achieve human spaceflight when astronaut Yang Liwei launched on a Shenzhou 5 spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket on 15 October 2003 and orbited the Earth for 21 hours before safely landing back on the planet’s surface.
The People’s Republic Of China’s space program is run by the state-owned China National Space Administration (CNSA). Apart from its first crewed flight, it has also already achieved several other feats, which will be highlighted in the following section.
The country’s human spaceflight program is called the China Manned Space Program (CMS), also known as Project 921, and run by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), which was approved on 21 September 1992.
The agency operates several launch facilities, of which the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is the oldest. Other launch facilities include the Taiyuan, Xichang, and Wenchang Satellite Launch Centers.
A Short Summary Of The Chinese Space Program
China’s human spaceflight program dates back to the 1950s. Following the launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, Chairman Mao decided that China should be on equal footing with the two superpowers of the time, which launched the country’s space program.
On 14 July 1967, following the race between the United States and the former Soviet Union to reach the Moon first, Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai agreed that China couldn’t be left behind, and the Chinese crewed space program was launched.
This led to the first successful satellite launch on 24 April 1970, when a CZ-1 rocket launched a 173 kg (381 pounds) payload into orbit. Several crewed flight programs followed, but most were canceled due to political turmoil and financial costs or suffered technical failures.
The program eventually got back on track, and on 15 October 2003, astronaut Yang Liwei launched on a Shenzhou 5 spacecraft atop a Long March 2F rocket and orbited the Earth for 21 hours before safely landing back in Inner Mongolia.
China’s attention also started shifting toward exploring the Moon, and on 24 October 2007, the country successfully launched its first lunar orbiter, the Chang’e 1. On 27 September 2008, Chinese astronauts also performed the first spacewalk/EVA (Extravehicular Activity).
The country started exploring interplanetary travel and launched the Tianwen-1 spacecraft aboard a Long March 5 rocket on 23 July 2020, which managed to reach and orbit Mars before landing on the planet’s surface and deploying the Zhurong rover.
China is also seeking to achieve a permanent presence in Low Eart Orbit and successfully launched the core module of their Tiangong space station into orbit on 29 April 2021. The Wentian laboratory cabin module was launched in 2022 & integrated with the core module.
Orbital Rockets Used By China For Human Spaceflight
Currently, the only orbital rocket used by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) is the Long March 2F, which was used to carry the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft and astronaut Yang Liwei Space into Space for China’s first crewed orbital flight.
However, the Long March 7 launch vehicle, which already successfully completed its maiden flight on 25 June 2016, is slated to eventually replace the Long March 2F for crewed launches and become the primary workhorse of the Chinese space fleet.
Conclusion
As mentioned during the introduction, more than 600 humans have traveled to Space since human spaceflight became possible in 1961, and approximately 11 countries currently have launch facilities and rockets capable of orbital spaceflight.
However, only Russia, the United States Of America, and China have the capability of launching crewed (human) flights from home soil. All three have the launch facilities, vehicles, and programs in place for continual crewed Space exploration.
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