In the 48 years that have followed up to Wednesdays launch of Shuttle Endeavour, 498 men and women (447 men and 51 women) have crossed the 62 mile mark, earning their space explorer wings. All but eight launched on American or Russian government owned spacecraft, although in total they have come from 36 nations. Four first flew on short sub-orbital hops, which is why the 500th person in space is not also the 500th in orbit.
SO COOL !!! 500th person to go into space... I can't wait to hear about the 1,000,000th person to make it into space!!! HAHAHAHA !!! Maybe in 20-30 years.
