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Record number of people in space

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Space - Level 4

It's getting crowded in space. A record number of 19 people are in the heavens. A three-person crew on a Russian Soyuz capsule docked at the ISS to break the record. A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts were on that mission. Chinese astronauts are part of the record. There are three "taikonauts" on the Tiangong Space Station. The remaining four space travellers are part of a SpaceX mission, which saw the first ever civilian spacewalk.

There is disagreement over the record. NASA and the U.S. military say the border between Earth and outer space is 80 km above sea level. With this measure, the record for humans in space was set at 20 in May 2023. However, the conventional definition of the edge of space is the Karman Line. The International Aeronautical Federation puts this at an altitude of 100 km above sea level. The new record uses this definition.

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Space - Level 5

It's becoming crowded in space. There is a record number of 19 people in the heavens. The record was broken after a three-person crew on a Russian Soyuz capsule docked at the ISS. On the recent mission were a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts. They brought the number of residents on the ISS to 12. Chinese astronauts are also part of the record. There are three "taikonauts" on the Tiangong Space Station. The remaining four space travellers are part of SpaceX's latest mission. That project saw a historic first ever civilian spacewalk.

There is a point of contention over the record. NASA and the U.S. military regard the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space as being 80 km above sea level. With this measure, the record for humans in space was set at 20 in May 2023. However, the conventional definition of the edge of space is called the Karman Line. The International Aeronautical Federation puts this at an altitude of 100 km above sea level. The new record uses this definition. The Karman Line is used to differentiate between what constitutes an aircraft and a spacecraft.

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11 online activities    |    8-page printable   (PDF)

Space - Level 6

It's becoming a little crowded in space. There is now a record number of 19 people up in the heavens. The record was broken after the three-person crew on board a Russian Soyuz capsule docked at the International Space Station (ISS). On the recent mission were NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. They brought the number of residents on the ISS to 12. Chinese astronauts are also part of the record. They have three "taikonauts" working on the Tiangong Space Station. The remaining four space travellers are part of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission. That project saw a historic first ever civilian spacewalk last Thursday.

There is a point of contention regarding the recent record. That is over the definition of where outer space starts. NASA and the U.S. military regard the boundary separating Earth's atmosphere and outer space as being 80 km above sea level. With this interpretation, the record for humans in space is 20, set in May 2023 and tied in January of this year. However, the conventional definition of the edge of space is called the Karman Line. The International Aeronautical Federation puts this line at an altitude of 100 km above sea level. The new record uses this definition. The Karman Line is used for legal purposes to differentiate between what constitutes an aircraft and a spacecraft.

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25 online activities    |    27-page printable    |    2-page mini-lesson

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