
How many people are in space right now? - hjc89
http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/
======
bbbrad
This is my site! Nothing better than waking up to the front page of HN. And
thanks for all the hilarious 503 error jokes. ;) Thanks for the submission.

Couple side notes:

+For those asking about using our data, go for it! We've got a json file you
can tap into:
[http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/space.json](http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/space.json)

+We are currently churning along on an iOS app that we are VERY excited about.
Think: Notifications every time the number changes plus some cool social
content integration.

Anyway, I'm a daily HN reader and honestly this has made my week. Thanks for
all the posi vibes!

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richforrester
Hah. 503 people in space. I must be the only one who finds that funny.

~~~
mkhalil
I want to laugh :( explain...

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recycleme
He is referring to an HTTP 503 error which is shown when a service is
unavailable.

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flexie
I believe there are 2 Americans in space right now.

Speaking of space - in a restricted sense - there are around 2.3 million
Americans in prison.

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Peroni
Correct. If you click the image or just scroll down you can see the names.

~~~
StavrosK
I have Ghostery, and I just get a big blank page with a "0" on it. I'm
assuming the GP has the same.

~~~
poopsintub
I believe the current "0" is because the json file is having problems being
served.

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supermatt
Down for me :(

I believe its circa 7 billion, if we only count those humans present on or
around our own planet.

~~~
clord
In one sense, we're "in space" more so than people on the space station —
there are no walls between us and the stars, just a gas that tapers off to
zero with us clinging to our rock by the merest force. It gives me vertigo
when I try hard to comprehend that.

~~~
jotaass
I think most of us are probably behind several layers of concrete, glass,
wood, etc.

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hidden-markov
[http://howmanyhedgehogsareinspacerightnow.com/](http://howmanyhedgehogsareinspacerightnow.com/)

~~~
tgb
Is there an API available for this data? Would be useful.

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wldlyinaccurate
Dear website owners,

Please take the time to set up a service like CloudFlare[0]. It's free, and
will prevent your site from going down during traffic spikes. There's really
no downside.

Regards, Frustrated User

[0]: [https://www.cloudflare.com/](https://www.cloudflare.com/)

~~~
JoshTriplett
No need for a CDN for a site like this; the content should be completely
static and regenerated whenever it changes.

~~~
4lun
The server can still tank from too many requests, static or not.

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hrrsn
As it has.

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belorn
How do you know the site is static?

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jbrooksuk
Ooh, I've been wanting to make an iOS app for something for a while now. This
should be a nice easy thing to sink my teeth into.

~~~
jbrooksuk
Why the downvote? Having this but in an app would be cool :)

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CoryG89
I didn't downvote, but I'm not sure why cloning this into a native IOS app is
such a cool thing. As long as it works in the browser, it's not really that
interactive or performance intensive so you wouldn't get any of the benefits
of a native app. If you just need something to use to learn to make a native
IOS app, this will work, but I don't see any reason to do it other than that.

~~~
jbrooksuk
Which is exactly what I'll be doing - learning. I've made Android applications
(some are in the Play store), but iOS and Objective-C is something I want to
learn now.

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rposborne
Expedition 37 with a crew of 6 are in space right now. 2 America, 3 Russian, 1
Italian. The last three launching Yesterday

"Expedition 37 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov, NASA Flight Engineer Michael
Hopkins and Russian Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy to the International
Space Station."

[http://www.nasa.gov/content/expedition-37-soyuz-
launch/#.UkQ...](http://www.nasa.gov/content/expedition-37-soyuz-
launch/#.UkQq82TzbOc)

Edit: CORRECTION this is the SECOND half of the Expedition 37 crew launching
25 September 2013, 20:58:50 UTC aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M. They are expected to
return 12 March 2014. The other three were launched in may.

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jccalhoun
This is just what the lamestream media wants you to think! Wake up sheeple!!!

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d64f396930663ee
A few years ago when I was living in China I was told about this, but it never
worked.

Then on a hunch I fired up my proxy and discovered that the Chinese government
was actively censoring it.

WHY

~~~
bbbrad
Really?! That's crazy to hear especially since we list the Chinese astronauts
when they fly just like everyone else!

I'd love to have a screenshot of what the site being blocked looks like.

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wil421
Got an error 503. A refresh loaded the page fine the second time, as did
subsequent refreshing. I couldn't repeat the error.

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techaddict009
Aha it has gone down. This proves most of site which come on front page of HN
go down with ease due to heavy traffic !

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techdmn
Arg, opening links in new windows by default! I can do that myself if I want
to, thank you very much.

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raldi
Cool. Now give me a graph over time, so I can see the last date that there was
nobody in space.

~~~
zbyszek
That would have to be a different URL, like
www.howmanypeoplewereinspaceatanygiventimeinthepast.com (sorry, coldcode).

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runn1ng
It was nice while it worked, now it switches from "Error 503" to "0".

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BetaCygni
Very Sci-Fi. The fontsize will have to be reduced once we reach >999 people in
space.

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gprasanth
Some people are gonna be really really happy they felt lucky.

Wow, now that I think about it for a moment, I realized no one ever feels
lucky these days. As soon as the search bar on Google's homepage is filled,
the form is auto submitted.

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raldi
I think you posted to the wrong thread. (What thread were you trying to post
to?)

~~~
CoryG89
He's referring to the fact that the URL is in spoken question form. So people
going to Google and querying "How Many People Are In Space Right Now" and
using the I'm Feeling Lucky search will be brought directly to the site.

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knowaveragejoe
I'm seeing '0'. That can't be right.

~~~
Kronopath
It was showing me '0' until I refreshed a few times. Now it's '6'.

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stevoo
looked interesting ... too bad it doesnt work. I assume capacity issue .... HN
must have brought it down

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coin
Blank screen on an iPad. Oh wait, I have to scroll down to the bottom to see
anything.

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chromaton
Can it update quickly enough to support the suborbital Virgin Galactic
flights?

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drdeca
Apparently the people currently in space have been there for NaN days.

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coldcode
www.whyarepeoplemakingdomainswithsuchridiculouslengthsthesedays.edu

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minikites
All the short ones are taken.

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return0
For the record, it's 6 (today)

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the1
www.howmanypeopleareonlinerightnow.com

