Someday, when mankind builds giant orbital stations and colonies on other planets, we’ll stop counting people in space, but the double digits are still impressive. There are currently 17 earthlings in space.

There are 11 people on the ISS (5 USA, 3 Russia, 2 Saudi Arabia, 1 UAE):

  • Soyuz MS-22 crew – Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos), Dmitry Petelin (Roscosmos), Francisco Rubio (NASA);
  • SpaceX Crew-6 – Stephen Bowen (NASA), Warren Hoburg (NASA), Sultan Al-Neyadi (Muhammad bin Rashid Space Center, UAE), Andrey Fedyaev (Roscosmos);
  • Axiom Mission 2 commercial crew – Peggy Whitson (Axiom Space), John Shoffner (commercial astronaut), Ali AlQarni (Saudi Space Commission, Saudi Arabia), Rayyanah Barnawi (Saudi Space Commission, Saudi Arabia).

At the Chinese Tiangong station, there are 6 people (all of the People’s Republic of China, all of the Taikonauts Unit of the People’s Liberation Army):

  • Shenzhou 15 crew – Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming, Zhang Lu;
  • Shenzhou 16 crew – Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, Gui Haichao.

Axiom Mission 2 is scheduled to undock from the ISS today, May 30, 2023. The Shenzhou 15 crew is scheduled to return on June 3, 2023, so soon only 10 people will remain in space.

Soyuz MS-22 was supposed to land on March 28, 2023, but due to depressurization problems should linger.