Timeline of space travel by nationality

Since the first human spaceflight by the Soviet Union, citizens of 55 countries have flown in space. For each nationality, the launch date of the first mission is listed. The list is based on the nationality of the person at the time of the launch. Only 8 of 55 countries have been represented by female "first flyers" (Helen Sharman for the United Kingdom in 1991, Anousheh Ansari for Iran in 2006, Yi So-yeon for South Korea in 2008, Sara Sabry for Egypt in 2022, and Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers for Antigua and Barbuda in 2023, Namira Salim for Pakistan in 2023, Marina Vasilevskaya for Belarus in 2024, Aisha Bowe for The Bahamas in 2025). Only three nations (Soviet Union/Russia, U.S., China) have launched their own crewed spacecraft, with the Soviets/Russians and the American programs providing rides to other nations' astronauts. Twenty-eight "first flights" occurred on Soviet or Russian flights while the United States carried twenty-six.

Timeline

Note: All dates given are UTC. Countries indicated in bold have achieved independent human spaceflight capability.

No.	Country	Name	Flight	Date (UTC)
1960s
1	Soviet Union	Yuri Gagarin	Vostok 1	12 April 1961
2	United States	Alan Shepard	MR-3	5 May 1961
1970s
3	Czechoslovakia	Vladimír Remek	Soyuz 28	2 March 1978
4	Poland	Mirosław Hermaszewski	Soyuz 30	27 June 1978
5	East Germany	Sigmund Jähn	Soyuz 31	26 August 1978
6	Bulgaria	Georgi Ivanov	Soyuz 33	10 April 1979
1980s
7	Hungary	Bertalan Farkas	Soyuz 36	26 May 1980
8	Vietnam	Phạm Tuân	Soyuz 37	23 July 1980
9	Cuba	Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez	Soyuz 38	18 September 1980
10	Mongolia	Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa	Soyuz 39	22 March 1981
11	Romania	Dumitru Prunariu	Soyuz 40	14 May 1981
12	France	Jean-Loup Chrétien	Soyuz T-6	24 June 1982
13	West Germany	Ulf Merbold	STS-9	28 November 1983
14	India	Rakesh Sharma	Soyuz T-11	3 April 1984
15	Canada	Marc Garneau	STS-41-G	5 October 1984
16	Saudi Arabia	Sultan al-Saud	STS-51-G	17 June 1985
17	Netherlands	Wubbo Ockels	STS-61-A	30 October 1985
18	Mexico	Rodolfo Neri Vela	STS-61-B	26 November 1985
19	Syria	Muhammed Faris	Soyuz TM-3	22 July 1987
20	Afghanistan	Abdul Ahad Momand	Soyuz TM-6	29 August 1988
1990s
21	Japan	Toyohiro Akiyama	Soyuz TM-11	2 December 1990
22	United Kingdom	Helen Sharman	Soyuz TM-12	18 May 1991
23	Austria	Franz Viehböck	Soyuz TM-13	2 October 1991
24	Russia	Aleksandr Kaleri Aleksandr Viktorenko	Soyuz TM-14	17 March 1992
25	Belgium	Dirk Frimout	STS-45	24 March 1992
26	Italy	Franco Malerba	STS-46	31 July 1992
	Switzerland	Claude Nicollier
28	Ukraine	Leonid Kadenyuk	STS-87	19 November 1997
29	Spain	Pedro Duque	STS-95	29 October 1998
30	Slovakia	Ivan Bella	Soyuz TM-29	20 February 1999
2000s
31	South Africa	Mark Shuttleworth	Soyuz TM-34	25 April 2002
32	Israel	Ilan Ramon	STS-107	16 January 2003
33	China	Yang Liwei	Shenzhou 5	15 October 2003
34	Brazil	Marcos Pontes	Soyuz TMA-8	30 March 2006
35	Iran	Anousheh Ansari	Soyuz TMA-9	18 September 2006
36	Sweden	Christer Fuglesang	STS-116	10 December 2006
37	Malaysia	Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor	Soyuz TMA-11	10 October 2007
38	South Korea	Yi So-yeon	Soyuz TMA-12	8 April 2008
2010s
39	Denmark	Andreas Mogensen	Soyuz TMA-18M	2 September 2015
	Kazakhstan	Aidyn Aimbetov
41	United Arab Emirates	Hazza Al Mansouri	Soyuz MS-15	25 September 2019
2020s
42	Australia	Chris Boshuizen	Blue Origin NS-18	13 October 2021
43	Portugal	Mário Ferreira	Blue Origin NS-22	4 August 2022
	Egypt	Sara Sabry
45	Antigua and Barbuda	Keisha Schahaff Anastatia Mayers	Galactic 02	10 August 2023
46	Pakistan	Namira Salim	Galactic 04	6 October 2023
47	Turkey	Alper Gezeravcı	Axiom Mission 3	18 January 2024
	Norway	Marcus Wandt
49	Belarus	Marina Vasilevskaya	Soyuz MS-25	23 March 2024
50	Malta	Chun Wang	Fram2	1 April 2025
	Saint Kitts and Nevis
52	The Bahamas	Aisha Bowe	Blue Origin NS-31	14 April 2025
53	Panama	Jaime Alemán	Blue Origin NS-32	31 May 2025
	New Zealand	Mark Rocket
55	Nigeria	Owolabi Salis	Blue Origin NS-33	29 June 2025

Other claims

The above list uses the nationality at the time of launch. Lists with differing criteria might include the following people:

• Pavel Popovich, first launched 12 August 1962, was the first Ukrainian-born man in space. At the time, Ukraine was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• Michael Collins, first launched 18 July 1966 was born in Italy to American parents and was an American citizen when he went into space.
• William Anders, American citizen, first launched 21 December 1968, was the first Hong Kong-born man in space.
• Vladimir Shatalov, first launched 14 January 1969, was the first Kazakh-born man in space. At the time, Kazakhstan was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• Bill Pogue, first launched 16 November 1973, as an inductee to the 5 Civilized Tribes Hall of Fame can lay claim to being the first Native American in space. See John Herrington below regarding technicality of tribal registration.
• Pyotr Klimuk, first launched 18 December 1973, was the first Belarusian-born man in space. At the time, Belarus was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• Vladimir Dzhanibekov, first launched 16 March 1978, was the first Uzbek-born man in space. At the time, Uzbekistan was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• Paul D. Scully-Power, first launched 5 October 1984, was born in Australia, but was an American citizen when he went into space; Australian law at the time forbade dual-citizenship.
• Taylor Gun-Jin Wang, first launched 29 April 1985, was born in China to Chinese parents, but was an American citizen when he went into space.
• Lodewijk van den Berg, launched 29 April 1985, was born in the Netherlands, but was an American citizen when he went into space.
• Patrick Baudry, first launched 17 June 1985, was born in French Cameroun (now part of Cameroon), but was a French citizen when he went into space.
• Shannon Lucid, first launched 17 June 1985, was born in China to American parents of European descent, and was an American citizen when she went into space.
• Franklin Chang-Diaz, first launched 12 January 1986, was born in Costa Rica, but was an American citizen when he went into space
• Musa Manarov, first launched 21 December 1987, was the first Azerbaijan-born man in space. At the time, Azerbaijan was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• Anatoly Solovyev, first launched 7 June 1988, was the first Latvian-born man in space. At the time, Latvia was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov became Russian rather than Soviet citizens while still in orbit aboard Mir, making them the first purely Russian citizens in space.
• James H. Newman, American citizen, first launched 12 September 1993, was born in the portion of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands that is now the Federated States of Micronesia.
• Talgat Musabayev, first launched 1 July 1994, was born in the Kazakh SSR and is known in Kazakhstan as the "first cosmonaut of independent Kazakhstan", but was a Russian citizen when he went into space.
• Frederick W. Leslie, American citizen, launched 20 October 1995, was born in Panama Canal Zone (now Panama).
• Andy Thomas, first launched 19 May 1996, was born in Australia but like Paul D. Scully-Power was an American citizen when he went to space; Australian law at the time forbade dual-citizenship.
• Carlos I. Noriega, first launched 15 May 1997, was born in Peru, but was an American citizen when he went into space.
• Bjarni Tryggvason, launched 7 August 1997, was born in Iceland, but was a Canadian citizen when he went into space.
• Salizhan Sharipov, first launched 22 January 1998, was born in Kyrgyzstan (then the Kirghiz SSR), but was a Russian citizen when he went into space. Sharipov is of Uzbek ancestry.
• Philippe Perrin, first launched 5 June 2002, was born in Morocco, but was a French citizen when he went into space.
• John Herrington, an American citizen first launched 24 November 2002, is the first tribal registered Native American in space (Chickasaw). See also Bill Pogue above.
• Fyodor Yurchikhin, first launched 7 October 2002, was born in Georgia (then the Georgian SSR). He was a Russian citizen at the time he went into space and is of Pontian Greek descent.
• Fernando Caldeiro, first launched January 2006, was born in Argentina, but worked under NASA as an American citizen.
• Joseph M. Acaba, first launched 15 March 2009, was born in the U.S. state of California to American parents of Puerto Rican descent.
• Aymette (Amy) Medina Jorge, first launched May 31, 2025, was the first person born in Puerto Rico to fly in space.

Gallery

• The Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space (1961)
• Alan Shepard from the United States of America, the second nation to send a person into space (1961)
• Vladimír Remek of Czechoslovakia, the first Czechoslovak national in space (1978)
• Mirosław Hermaszewski of Poland, the first Polish national in space (1978)
• Sigmund Jähn of East Germany, the first German in space (1978)
• Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space (1984)
• Helen Sharman, the first person from the United Kingdom in space (1991)
• Yang Liwei of China, the third nation to launch a person into space (2003)
• Marcos Pontes, of Brazil, the first South American and the first lusophone in space (2006)
• Sara Sabry, first Egyptian astronaut (2022)