Most consecutive days in space (1994 to 1995)
Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov spent 438 consecutive days aboard the Mir space station from January 1994 to March 1995. When he returned he opted to walk off the Soyuz TM-20 rocket, instead of being carried, to prove that humans would one day be able to walk on Mars after the lengthy journey through space.

Oldest person in space (1998)
US Senator John Glenn was 77 when he flew on Discovery's STS-95 mission in 1998. He was also the first American to orbit the Earth, way back in 1962 -- which gives him yet another record of the longest time between voyages into space: 36 years.

First crew aboard the International Space Station (2000)
The first resident crew, a three man team from Russia and America, of this monster space station arrived on Russia's Soyuz TM-31 in November 2000. The International Space Station is most expensive structure ever built, on Earth or off. It's already cost over $100 billion to make, and it won't be completed until 2012 at the earliest. It's also the biggest, almost as long as a football field, and is visible with the naked eye from Earth.

First privately staffed spaceship (2004)
The pioneering private space firm SpaceX might be making all the headlines now, but SpaceShipOne marked the first privately-funded human spaceflight. The craft hit an altitude of 62 miles before returning to Earth. The whole venture has since evolved into Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Biggest space shindig (2009)
The largest human gathering in Space at any one time is 13. In 2009, Nasa's Endeavour shuttle docked at the ISS, and the ship's seven-person crew met up with the six astronauts aboard the orbiting space station. At the time of writing, there are currently nine humans in space.

First man on Mars (????)
As humans embark on every more grand and outlandish exploration missions, there's no doubt that mankind will one day set foot on the red planet. Budgetary issues and technical hurdles keep Mars as a distant, ambitious target, but all signs -- from Nasa, the ESA and President Obama's 2010 bill -- point to the 2030s as the date for the first man on Mars.

Have you been to space? Let us know what it's like in the comments.

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