105
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What is the closest distance a human being has come to Mars ever since the beginning of the space age?
Let's start with some basic facts, which helps narrowing it down:
Humans have not been outside the Earth-Moon system.
Except from the Apollo program, humans have not been outside low Earth Orbit.
The ...
46
votes
Which object has been to space the most times?
The Space Shuttle Discovery has been to orbit a total number of 39 times, more than any other shuttle vehicle (source: Wikipedia). Contrasting that to other candidate objects:
Space Shuttles Atlantis,...
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37
votes
Without the accident, would Apollo 13 still have been the farthest crewed mission from the Earth?
You've hit on a really interesting question. To answer this, I'm going to look at JPL Horizons, using the center of the Earth and the center of the Moon as the distances provided. I'm going to look at ...
- 122k
32
votes
Accepted
Who were the youngest and oldest persons in space?
As of May 19, 2024, the oldest person to fly in space is sculptor and historian Ed Dwight, aged 90 years 8 months at the time of his flight, narrowly edging out Canadian actor William Shatner (The ...
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31
votes
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How long will it take Elon Musk's roadster to become the fastest ever car?
It'll take a hot minute.
According to the FlightClub.io simulation, the Falcon Heavy flight will be doing 138.7 m/s (496 km/h) at the 30 second mark, beating the Koenigsegg Agera RS.
It should hit ...
- 172k
26
votes
What artificial satellite has the farthest orbit around the Earth?
note: @BillGray's answer of XL8D89E is the highest and the correct answer!
I found the following "far out" spacecraft:
TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) recently launched, not in ...
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23
votes
Accepted
When was the last time that an incandescent light bulb was launched into space?
December 2011. At that time, Soyuz TMA-03M flew to ISS. On its successor, TMA-04M, its
SMI-4 light was replaced with a LED headlight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_MS phrases it:
the old ...
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22
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Without the accident, would Apollo 13 still have been the farthest crewed mission from the Earth?
I believe the answer is yes, but just barely.
The distance from the Earth to the moon varies significantly over time, from 356,400 to 406,700 km. I plugged the dates of orbital entry and departure ...
- 172k
22
votes
What are the most-delayed missions that eventually launched successfully?
For shuttle at least, I believe the longest delay was the torturous launch flow of STS-35. (tl;dr it was delayed six months.)
Using the criteria in the Space Shuttle Missions Summary, namely
...
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22
votes
Accepted
What is the lowest first stage thrust for a launch reaching orbit?
The U.S. Vanguard rocket reached orbit three times with a first stage thrust of only 125 kN.
The first stage of the three-stage Vanguard Test vehicle was powered by a GE X-405 28,000 pound (~125,000 ...
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22
votes
Accepted
Is there a record for unbroken series of "successful launches" by some objective criteria? Who has it now? What has to happen for it to change hands?
2024 Update: SpaceX is the current record holder with 325 consecutive failure-free launches. Their streak was ended on the 12th of July, 2024, when a second-stage malfunction caused mission failure. ...
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21
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What is the closest distance a human being has come to Mars ever since the beginning of the space age?
Even if Apollo 11's crew would build a Moon base in 1969, and lived there until now, they would not be closer to Mars than without such base!
Mars approaches Earth during opposition every couple of ...
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19
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What is the largest number of humans in space at the same time and what vessels were they on when it happened?
Today (2021 Sept 16th) there are 14 people in orbit and above 100 km altitude (Karman Line):
7 in the ISS
4 in SpaceX Inspiration4
3 in the Chinese Tiangong space station
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18
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What is the fastest rover that has ever traveled on the surface of an extra-terrestrial body?
The manned Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle from Apollo 17 holds the record of 17km/h achieved by Eugene Cernan. Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle was also present on Apollo 15 and 16.
For traditionally ...
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18
votes
Accepted
What was the "5 minute EVA"? What was the shortest-duration EVA ever?
As far as I've been able to find, the shortest EVA in history was also the first: Alexei Leonov's spacewalk on Voskhod 2 at 12 minutes, 9 seconds.
On the US, side, Ed White's Gemini IV spacewalk ...
- 172k
17
votes
Accepted
Was Alexander Gerst the first man to have bare skin exposed to the vacuum of space and live?
No. It occurred previously on STS-37 in 1991. During an EVA, a glove was punctured; the astronaut's hand almost immediately sealed the hole. They didn't notice (remarkable as that sounds) until after ...
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17
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What is the furthest from Earth that a military spacecraft is thought to have been intentionally deployed or moved to?
There are other satellites that were launched that went beyond GEO:
SOLRAD 11A and SOLRAD 11B by the US Naval Research Laboratory:
SOLRAD 11A was one of a pair of identical satellites that were ...
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16
votes
Highest DC voltage ever intentionally produced in space?
Potential answer (pun intended): 8000 volts for the Apollo television cameras.
Several voltage levels must be accounted for: as much as 8 kilovolts are required at the tube photocathode, and various ...
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15
votes
Highest DC voltage ever intentionally produced in space?
Linear accelerators have been employed in space. While "voltage" is perhaps not the right term, precisely, these do generate very high energy beams, and frequently using means (like RF, etc)...
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14
votes
What is the largest number of humans in space at the same time and what vessels were they on when it happened?
The latest record is 19, from December 11, 2021.
10 on the ISS with two overlapping SpaceX crews, in orbit.
3 on the Chinese Tiangong Space Station, in orbit.
6 on Blue Origin's sub-orbital NS-19 ...
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14
votes
Accepted
Highest number of satellites launched on a single rocket
As of Feb 15, 2017, it is 104 satellites by India's ISRO.
PSLV-C37 launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 09:28 local time (03:58 UTC).
ISRO-104
ISRO-ndtv
UPDATE: (Jan. 24, 2021)
As of Jan 24, ...
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14
votes
Accepted
Longest continuous burning chemical rocket engine?
As @OON mentions, some small spacecraft maneuvering engines do really long burns. Juno's orbital insertion burn at Jupiter is 35 minutes.
Here are some notable launcher/bus stage burns:
Ariane 5 ...
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14
votes
Accepted
What artificial satellite has the farthest orbit around the Earth?
I don't have a list to find the highest, but I suspect that Spektr-R RadioAstron (used for long baseline radio interferometry) is one of the highest altitudes that isn't associated with a Lagrange ...
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14
votes
What are the most-delayed missions that eventually launched successfully?
269 Days, almost 9 Months
HETE-2 was attached to its Pegasus launch vehicle in December, 1999, ready for a January launch. But then, NASA got cold feet. On January 14, 2000, they decided to postpone ...
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14
votes
What is the furthest from Earth that a military spacecraft is thought to have been intentionally deployed or moved to?
It is fairly trivial to disprove the "not above GEO" line, at least... Vela 1A was operated by the USAF and has a circular orbit in HEO at ~100000km perigee, for example. Things in Molniya ...
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13
votes
Astronaut distance from Earth?
Highest altitude of all manned missions excluding Apollo: Gemini 11, 1372 km
(leaving this here for reference: )
Highest altitude dated after Apollo: Space Shuttle STS-31R (the Hubble launch), 620 ...
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13
votes
What is the lowest first stage thrust for a launch reaching orbit?
@2012campion's answer shows that this was not the lowest thrust
The smallest rocket to reach orbit is the Japanese SS520-5. It had a peak thrust of $185 kN$ according to the same web page:
Firing up ...
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13
votes
What was the "5 minute EVA"? What was the shortest-duration EVA ever?
The second shortest spacewalk was performed by Michael Fincke and Gennady Padalka on June 24, 2004 on Expedition 9 at the ISS. There was a problem with Michael Fincke's oxygen tank, and they were ...
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13
votes
Accepted
Largest solar panel (by area) deployed in space? Largest below/at/above GEO?
One solar array wing on the ISS, consisting of two blankets stretched out by a supporting mast, contains 32,800 cells that are approximately 8 cm by 8 cm, giving a total active area of approximately ...
- 17.4k
12
votes
What is the highest non-equatorial earth orbit used?
The highest that I can find record of ever was the AIMP-D, which "perigee varied between 6 and 44 earth radii". Currently it's perigee is about 265,000 km.
The furthest operation is probably Spektr-R,...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible