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A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications,...

Earth, and became the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory built the Galileo spacecraft and managed the Galileo program...

Soyuz (Russian: Союз, IPA: [sɐˈjus], lit. 'Union') is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights...

Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input...

67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P). During its journey to the comet, the spacecraft performed flybys of Earth, Mars, and the asteroids 21 Lutetia and 2867...

which were known as "Buran-class orbiters". The construction of the Buran spacecraft began in 1980, and by 1984 the first full-scale orbiter was rolled out...

The spacecraft cemetery, also known as spacecraft graveyard or spacecraft junkyard, known more formally as the South Pacific Ocean(ic) Uninhabited Area—is...

The Magellan spacecraft was a 1,035-kilogram (2,282 lb) robotic space probe launched by NASA on May 4, 1989. Its mission objectives were to map the surface...

pinyin: Shénzhōu, /ˈʃɛnˈdʒoʊ/ shen-JOH; see § Etymology) is a Chinese spacecraft developed for the China Manned Space Program. Its design was based on...

other launch vehicles. The cost of the development of the Prometheus spacecraft and of upgrading the Atlas V would be between $3.5 and $4 billion. The...

orbit around Ceres. Dawn is the first spacecraft to have orbited two extraterrestrial bodies, the first spacecraft to have visited either Vesta or Ceres...

the planet. All target encounters will be flyby encounters. The Lucy spacecraft is the centerpiece of a US$981 million mission. On 4 January 2017, Lucy...

Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion is used in the vacuum of space after...

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used by NASA for the Artemis lunar exploration program. It consists of...

of NASA's New Frontiers program. Launched in 2006, it became the first spacecraft to perform a flyby study and capture high-resolution photographs of Pluto...

A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a crewed or robotic spacecraft on the Moon. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2...

Lockheed Martin and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011 UTC...

The Altair spacecraft, previously known as the Lunar Surface Access Module or LSAM, was the planned lander spacecraft component of NASA's cancelled Constellation...

2029. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages the project. The spacecraft will orbit the asteroid from August 5, 2029, to October 31, 2031, spending...

mythological bird that is repeatedly reborn from its own ashes. The Phoenix spacecraft contains several previously built components. The lander used was the...

Vostok (Russian: Восток, lit. 'East') was a class of single-pilot crewed spacecraft built by the Soviet Union. The first human spaceflight was accomplished...

part of the Voyager program and like its sister craft Voyager 2, the spacecraft's extended mission is to locate and study the regions and boundaries of...

The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. The Space Race began...

The concept of self-replicating spacecraft, as envisioned by mathematician John von Neumann, has been described by futurists and has been discussed across...

The TKS spacecraft (Russian: Транспортный корабль снабжения, Transportnyi Korabl’ Snabzheniia, lit. Transport Supply Spacecraft; GRAU index 11F72) was...

Cygnus is an expendable American uncrewed cargo spacecraft developed for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions. It was originally built by...

no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft (nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages), mission-related debris...

The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end...

'Dream Vessel'), formerly known as the Next-Generation Crewed Spacecraft, is crewed spacecraft in development by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation...

development. Gemini was conceived in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts...

spacecraft was in the coma of Wild 2. The solar array design was derived primarily from the Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) spacecraft development...

spacecraft, the existence of a "hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft....

Cassini–Huygens mission and became the first spacecraft to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made. The probe was named after...

Russian expendable cargo spacecraft. Originally developed for the Soviet space program and derived from the crewed Soyuz spacecraft, Progress has been instrumental...

Military spacecraft may refer to: Military satellite, satellites used for military purposes Space weapon, a weapon used for space warfare This disambiguation...

further development. Sergei Korolev, the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the 1950s and 1960s, planned to adopt the same lunar orbit...

Starships & Spacecraft is a supplement published by Judges Guild in 1979 for Game Designers Workshop's science-fiction role-playing game Traveller. Starships...

Starship (or colloquially the Ship) is a spacecraft and second stage under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. Stacked atop its booster,...

Apollo by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said, "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby." Silverstein chose the name at home one evening...

robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency. The spacecraft flew by and studied Halley's Comet and in doing so became the first spacecraft to...

The Voskhod (Russian: Восход, lit. 'Sunrise') was a spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space program for human spaceflight as part of the Voskhod programme...

the Space Launch System (SLS), and the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the four-person crew. The mission was a test flight...

to undergo uncontrolled reentry by the end of 2026. The LINK servicing spacecraft, built and operated by Katalyst Space Technologies, was launched on July...

A lander is a spacecraft that descends towards, then comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body other than Earth.[page needed] In contrast to...

Commercial Resupply Services. NASA also leads the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket for the Artemis program. NASA collaborates...

A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments...

sampled all of the solar wind which the spacecraft encountered (the "bulk solar wind"). However, the spacecraft also carried three arrays of collectors...

launched on January 25, 1994. Its objective was to test sensors and spacecraft components in long-term exposure to space and to make scientific observations...

lander LK (spacecraft) – Soviet crewed lunar lander Starship HLS – SpaceX's lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft Altair (spacecraft) – the crewed...

the plane of the Solar System. To change the orbital inclination of a spacecraft to about 80° requires a large change in heliocentric velocity, the energy...

(Uranus and Neptune). The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, it was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity...

project by Roscosmos to develop a new-generation, partially reusable crewed spacecraft. Until 2016, the official name was (Russian: Пилотируемый Транспортный...

Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER) is a concept study by NASA on a spacecraft (8 tonnes) capable of detonating a nuclear bomb to deflect an asteroid...

the American firm Bigelow Aerospace, and was intended to be the third spacecraft launched by the company in their efforts to create a commercial space...

1976, respectively. The Helios project set a maximum speed record for spacecraft of 252,792 km/h (157,078 mph; 70,220 m/s). Helios-B performed the closest...

This is a list of all crewed spacecraft types that have flown into space, including sub-orbital flights above 80 km, space stations that have been visited...

including its rings and natural satellites. The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini space probe and ESA's Huygens lander, which...

The Polyus spacecraft (Russian: Полюс, pole), also known as Polus, Skif-DM, GRAU index 17F19DM, was a prototype Soviet orbital weapons platform designed...

Reusable spacecraft are spacecraft capable of repeated launch, atmospheric reentry, and landing or splashdown. This contrasts with expendable spacecraft which...

A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including...

Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) is a spacecraft mission to Mars consisting of two spacecraft known as Blue and Gold, which launched in November...

Nyx is a reusable spacecraft under development by the European company The Exploration Company for cargo (and potentially crewed) missions to low Earth...

antimatter propulsion spacecraft is a proposed hypothetical class of space technology that utilize antimatter for power within spacecraft propulsion. There...

The slew of a spacecraft is its orientation in reference to a plane or fixed position such as Earth, the Sun, another celestial body or other point in...

Tiān Zhōu; lit. 'Heavenly Ship') is a series of Chinese automated cargo spacecraft developed from China's first prototype space station Tiangong-1 to resupply...

Spacecraft electric propulsion encompasses spacecraft propulsion systems that use electric energy to accelerate and expel propellant, generating thrust...

A boilerplate spacecraft, also known as a mass simulator, is a nonfunctional craft or payload that is used to test various configurations and basic size...

retirement of a spacecraft refers to the discontinuation of a spacecraft from active service. This can involve deorbiting the spacecraft, discontinuing...

Mandarin, also known as Project 714 (Chinese: 七一四工程), was the first crewed spacecraft proposed by China during the late 1960s and early 1970s that was never...

human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term...

a spacecraft that can be navigated or follow a predetermined course. Methods for controlled atmospheric entry, descent, and landing of spacecraft are...

maintained and crewed through international cooperation and the largest human spacecraft ever constructed. It is an orbital research station, where scientific...

Spacecraft Event Time (SCET) is the spacecraft-local time for events that happen at the spacecraft. SCET is used for command programs that control the...

Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a spacecraft mission of the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched...

A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing...

and reentry vehicle. Initially designed for the LK-1 human lunar flyby spacecraft for one of the Soviet crewed lunar programs, then the LK-700 redesign...

of the Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz Sever design of a crewed spacecraft started the Soyuz programme. In 1956, the Soyuz Sever spacecraft was proposed as...

A fractionated spacecraft is a satellite architecture where the functional capabilities of a conventional monolithic spacecraft are distributed across...

version of a Soyuz spacecraft started in 1978. The Aelita was part of the Soyuz programme, but was planned to use an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft as an infrared...

Camilla is a spacecraft and mission concept proposed for NASA’s New Frontiers program. It would be a centaur exploration mission, particularly to minor...

2022 as a secondary payload on Falcon Heavy together with the Psyche spacecraft, but it was removed due to delays with Psyche. The mission budget was...

usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such...

2021. CAESAR (spacecraft) – Proposed sample-return mission to a comet, other New Frontiers 4 finalist. Huygens (spacecraft) – First spacecraft to land on...

Spacecraft detumbling is the process of reducing or eliminating unwanted angular velocity (tumbling) of a spacecraft following launcher separation or an...

rockets remain the only way to launch spacecraft into orbit and beyond. They are also used to rapidly accelerate spacecraft when they change orbits or de-orbit...

v t e Reusable launch systems and spacecraft Launch systems Active Falcon 9 (first stage) Falcon Heavy (core stages) Long March 10B (first stage) New Glenn...

due to an increased delta-V demand. The spacecraft's solar arrays will be provided by JAXA. The spacecraft's central tube, made of carbon fibre reinforced...

In spacecraft design, the function of the thermal control system (TCS) is to keep all the spacecraft's component systems within acceptable temperature...

A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found...

Cornerstone mission which would have involved a constellation of four to nine spacecraft designed to directly detect Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars and...

primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and...

(Chinese: 轻舟货运飞船; pinyin: Qīngzhōu huòyùn fēichuán) is a class of cargo spacecraft developed by CAS Space, a company founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences...

Theoretical spacecraft propulsion refers to a series of theoretical spacecraft propulsion systems mainly proposed for interstellar travel. The fission...

typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space...

This is a list of spacecraft missions (including unsuccessful ones) to the planet Mars, such as orbiters, landers, and rovers. Mission time is often measured...

Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of...

Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions...

Spacecraft design is a process where systems engineering principles are systemically applied in order to construct complex vehicles for missions involving...

is any activity performed by an astronaut in outer space outside of a spacecraft. This includes spacewalks, lunar or planetary surface exploration (commonly...

fictional spacecraft, starships and exo-atmospheric vessels that have been identified by name in notable published works of fiction. The term "spacecraft" is...

Spacecraft charging is a physical phenomenon where spacecraft accumulate electrical charge while operating in space environments. This effect occurs due...

crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated...

tables list all minor planets and comets that have been visited by robotic spacecraft. A total of 21 minor planets (asteroids, dwarf planets, and Kuiper belt...

Jupiter is a proposed space tug spacecraft concept by Lockheed Martin, which was initially conceptualized as a 2015 bid proposal to NASA for an International...

The passivation of a spacecraft is the removal of any internal energy contained in the vehicle at the end of its mission or useful life. Spent upper stages...

science teacher and former biologist Ryland Grace, who wakes up aboard a spacecraft, afflicted with amnesia. Project Hail Mary received generally positive...

in the 2005–2010 timeframe. TAU was a proposed nuclear electric rocket spacecraft that used a 1 MW fission reactor and an ion drive (with a burn time of...

December 2005 during its extended mission and was declared lost. The spacecraft was part of NASA's Sun-Earth Connections Program, and its data has been...

Spacecraft collision avoidance is the implementation and study of processes minimizing the chance of orbiting spacecraft inadvertently colliding with other...

Spacecraft magnetometers are magnetometers used aboard spacecraft and satellites, mostly for scientific investigations, plus attitude sensing. Magnetometers...

June 25, 2003. NASA's Launch Services Program managed the launch of both spacecraft. The probes landed in January 2004 in widely separated equatorial locations...

mission under development by the Brazilian Space Agency that will launch a spacecraft to orbit a near-Earth object known as (153591) 2001 SN263, a triple asteroid...

exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft. Space exploration Big science – Term used to describe a series of changes...

listing of spacecraft that achieved an extraterrestrial orbit. The first artificial object to orbit the sun is the Luna 1. The spacecraft was originally...

Way at low frequencies, and dust at high frequencies.[needs update] The spacecraft carries two instruments: the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and the High...

Docking and berthing of spacecraft is the joining of two space vehicles. This connection can be temporary, or partially permanent such as for space station...

reusable experimental spacecraft (Chinese: 可重复使用试验航天器; pinyin: Kěchóngfùshǐyòng shìyàn hángtiānqì, CSSHQ) is the first reusable spacecraft produced by China...

Soviets developed several spacecraft for support roles—the VA spacecraft, the Functional Cargo Block and the TKS spacecraft, which they planned to use...

flight was launched with a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, MRLV-8. The spacecraft, Mercury capsule #11, was nicknamed Liberty Bell 7. It was piloted by...

spaceflight in the mid-twentieth century, only countries developed and flew spacecraft above the Kármán line, the nominal boundary of space. Both the U.S. civilian...

Champollion was a planned cometary rendezvous and landing spacecraft. It was named after Jean-François Champollion, a French Egyptologist known for translating...

Trajectories of distant spacecraft from launch to 2030 Several space probes and the upper stages of their launch vehicles are leaving the Solar System...

The Hiten spacecraft (ひてん, Japanese pronunciation: [çiteɴ]), given the English name Celestial Maiden and known before launch as MUSES-A (Mu Space Engineering...

Flight", by Philip Lubin of UC Santa Barbara. Sending the lightweight spacecraft involves a multi-kilometer phased array of beam-steerable lasers with...

major US laboratory for developing and operating uncrewed scientific spacecraft. GSFC conducts scientific investigation, development, manufacturing and...

for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves from...

The Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor (SCRAM) is a highly compact gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) instrument built by JPL that is a technology demonstration...

Propellantless spacecraft propulsion is any spacecraft propulsion system that accelerates the craft by interacting with the environment rather than expelling...

The Global Geospace Science (GGS) Wind satellite is a NASA science spacecraft designed to study radio waves and plasma that occur in the solar wind and...

and magnetic fields. The proposal consists of the solar powered carrier spacecraft, two atmospheric probes and (possibly) two small probes for the close-up...

stronger than expected, but both spacecraft managed to survive in that environment. The trajectories of these spacecraft were used to refine the mass estimates...

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice, formerly JUICE) is an interplanetary spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). It is on its way to orbit...

Sputnik (Спутник, Russian for "satellite") is a name for multiple spacecraft launched under the Soviet space program. "Sputnik 1", "Sputnik 2" and "Sputnik...

planetary system. Spaceflights become interplanetary by accelerating spacecraft beyond orbital speed, reaching escape velocity relative to Earth at 11...

interior of the nucleus, forming an impact crater. Photographs taken by the spacecraft showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than had been expected...

Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International...

The Spacecraft Fabrication Facility is a unit at the Goddard Space Flight Center where technicians and engineers manufacture components used for spacecraft...

identical phonograph records, with one copy aboard each of the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and data to reconstruct raster...

The spacecraft bus is a carbon fibre box that houses systems of the telescope and so is the primary support element of the James Webb Space Telescope,...

the Galileo spacecraft made six passes between 1996 and 2000; and the Juno spacecraft performed two flybys in 2019 and 2021. No spacecraft has yet orbited...

provided over 700 W of power while in Venus orbit. The total mass of the spacecraft at launch was 517.6 kg (1,141 lb). The mass of the science payload was...

2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft. The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December...

vehicle consists of two stages: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft, both powered by Raptor engines burning liquid methane (the main component...

rendezvous (/ˈrɒndeɪvuː/) is a set of orbital maneuvers during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach...

commander or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department...

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations...

The Iranian crewed spacecraft is a proposal by the Iranian Space Agency and Iranian Aerospace Research Institute of the Iranian Space Research Center (ISRC)...

a character in the Shakespeare play The Tempest, just like Prospero (spacecraft) and Ariel 1. Miranda used propane cold gas thrusters for attitude control...

time. As of April 2026, the spacecraft's propulsion system and software had not yet been certified by NASA, and the spacecraft's initial mission in late 2026...

deviation from predicted accelerations of the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft after they passed about 20 astronomical units (3×109 km; 2×109 mi) on...

Japanese student spacecraft which was intended to make a flyby of Venus in order to study the effects of interplanetary spaceflight on spacecraft computers....

Jens Frydenvang, associate professor at University of Copenhagen. The spacecraft is being built by the mission's main industrial partner, the Danish satellite...

was as a first stage of a two-stage launch platform for an envisioned spacecraft, which was known as Horus (Hypersonic Orbital Upper Stage), as well as...

depended on the US Space Shuttle program, and independent development of spacecraft was not adopted as a short to mid-term goal. Instead, NASDA chose to recommend...

"heliotail", trailing for several thousands of AUs. Two Voyager program spacecraft explored the outer reaches of the heliosphere, passing through the termination...

design, build, test and operate in space a spacecraft with capabilities similar to that of the first spacecraft, Sputnik. The CubeSat, as initially proposed...

the primary contractor for Hermes, the name that had been given to the spacecraft. French aircraft manufacturer Dassault-Breguet was awarded responsibility...

Soyuz 7K-L1 (Zond) spacecraft launched with the Proton-K rocket, and a crewed lunar landing using Soyuz 7K-LOK and LK spacecraft launched with the N1...

A single-person spacecraft is a vehicle designed for space travel. The concept has been used in science fiction and actual ships such as the Mercury capsule...

March 1983 at 12:45:06 UTC, using the Proton-K rocket. Based on the 4MV spacecraft design and operational for six years, Astron was the largest ultraviolet...

plaques that were placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft, featuring a pictorial message, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 is intercepted...

and American sub-orbital flights Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4. The Mercury spacecraft, named Friendship 7, was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle...

Space Reactor-1 Freedom (SR-1) is a proposed NASA spacecraft intended to be the first nuclear fission-powered interplanetary mission and to demonstrate...

National Reconnaissance Office. Aviation Week speculated that such a spacecraft could also have offensive military capabilities, a concept colloquially...

Safe mode is an operating mode of a modern uncrewed spacecraft during which all non-essential systems are shut down and only essential functions such as...

before the US Space Shuttle in 1972, Chelomey developed two concepts for a spacecraft that would launch vertically and land horizontally. The MP-1 Kosmoplan[citation...

rather than a lunar landing. Four astronauts will launch aboard the Orion spacecraft on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida...

including space stations. Spacecraft may change mass over time such as by use of propellant. Currently the heaviest spacecraft is the International Space...

Spacecraft call signs are radio call signs used for communication in crewed spaceflight. These are not formalized or regulated to the same degree as other...

potential missions in the Discovery-class, and it would have been the first spacecraft encounter with a Centaur and the first orbital exploration of a small...

Mars program was a series of uncrewed spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included...

Photovoltaic solar panels are the power source for almost all spacecraft ever launched. Modern spacecraft typically use multi-junction solar cell and gallium arsenide-based...

commonly known as RSC Energia, is a Russian aerospace manufacturer and spacecraft design bureau. Headquartered in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast, the company is...

particularly a human mission to Mars. He developed the Aldrin cycler, a special spacecraft trajectory that makes travel to Mars more efficient in terms of time and...

more complex than any previous crewed spacecraft. In October 1963, Joseph F. Shea was named Apollo Spacecraft Program Office (ASPO) manager, responsible...

spaceflight to low Earth orbit and the Moon. On the other hand, uncrewed spacecraft have reached all of the known planets in the Solar System. Outer space...

built to the same model of structural frame, propulsion, spacecraft power and intra-spacecraft communication. Only commercially available (in present or...

(19 mi/s) in typical interplanetary designs, with meganewtons of thrust. Many spacecraft propulsion drives can achieve one of these or the other, but nuclear pulse...

Hera is the first planetary defence spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). Its primary mission objective is to study the Didymos binary...

Solar wind parameters were measured for a much longer time period. The spacecraft was spin-stabilized at two different rates (5 and 0.2 rpm). Hydrazine...

exploration sectors. It initially focused on asteroid mining, including spacecraft concepts for harvesting resources for in-space use. It was acquired on...

rapidly expanded and played increasingly greater roles in development of spacecraft, launch vehicles, deep tech, supporting services and proplusion systems...

becoming the first spacecraft to do so. It successfully completed its primary mission in 2012. Following two mission extensions, the spacecraft used the last...

The Modular Common Spacecraft Bus (MCSB) is a fast-development, low-cost, general purpose spacecraft platform. Its modular design is intended to reduce...

to the spacecraft, the Shenzhou 20 crew returned to Earth on 14 November using the Shenzhou 21 spacecraft instead. The Shenzhou 20 spacecraft returned...

MAVEN is an inactive NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars that studied the loss of its atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's...

A spacecraft command language (or satellite control language, spacecraft control language, Systems Test and Operation Language (STOL), Satellite Test and...

is a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until it separated to land on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, ten years...

program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility...

results of the ASSET program, McDonnell proposed Winged Gemini, a Gemini spacecraft version capable of landing on a runway. Built by McDonnell, each vehicle...

the 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, on 12 April 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes...

Spacecraft flight dynamics is the application of mechanical dynamics to model how the external forces acting on a space vehicle or spacecraft determine...

made to the docking port of the OPS to accommodate Soyuz spacecraft in addition to TKS spacecraft. The civilian DOS space station cores were designed by...

Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 3B rocket. On July 4, 2026 the spacecraft arrived at 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, a near-Earth asteroid that is currently...

the orbit of a spacecraft. For spacecraft far from Earth, an orbital maneuver is called a deep-space maneuver (DSM). When a spacecraft is not conducting...

Castalia is a proposed mission concept for a robotic spacecraft to explore the main-belt comet 7968 Elst–Pizarro and make the first in situ measurements...

multitude of add-ons to allow users to fly assorted real and fictional spacecraft and add new planets or planetary systems. Orbiter is a realistic physics...

which would investigate the effects of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to test whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision...

fourteen partially reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. The spacecraft flew 23 missions between 2010...

he and Command Pilot John Young performed orbital rendezvous with two spacecraft and undertook two extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks)...

requirements in spacecraft systems are the specific system requirements needed to design and operate a spacecraft or a spacecraft subsystem. Spacecraft systems...

on the lunar surface, followed later that year by Luna 10, the first spacecraft to enter orbit around the Moon. In 1968, the Zond 5 mission became the...

exploration, it also measured the radiation exposure in the interior of the spacecraft as it traveled to Mars, and it is continuing radiation measurements as...

Telecommunications link, communication channel between two or more devices LINK, a spacecraft used in the Swift rescue mission Link (The Legend of Zelda), in The Legend...

Shenzhou spacecraft for missions of about six months, with temporary crew sizes of six during handovers. Cargo missions use the Tianzhou spacecraft. It is...

Rosetta mission, which studied the comet from 2014 to 2016, allows the spacecraft to be designed to the conditions there, increasing the mission's chance...

records a detailed timeline of this mission. 16 February 2004 — The Rosetta spacecraft was placed on top of its Ariane 5 rocket at the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou...

LightShip is a proposed class of uncrewed interplanetary spacecraft under development by the European Space Agency (ESA) that will serve as a space tug...

loss of contact with one of the two spacecraft. Contact was re-established with PROBA-3 in March and the spacecraft resumed observations in July. On 19...

during early development as the China crewed lunar surface lander, is a spacecraft under development by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) for...

completion of the primary OSIRIS-REx (Regolith Explorer) mission, the spacecraft, renamed as OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), began a follow-up mission...

add Boeing when Starliner becomes human rated no earlier than 2030. The spacecraft are owned and operated by the vendor, and crew transportation is provided...

The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in...

This is a list of spacecraft deployed from the International Space Station. The International Space Station deploys spacecraft using the JEM Small Satellite...

quarters because this is the duration between each 90-degree rotation of the spacecraft. For the first quarter of observations, six months are required for data...

Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) (previously known as the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building) is a historic building on Merritt Island, Florida...

The Spacecraft Monitoring & Control (SM&C) Working Group of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), which sees the active participation...

Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to...

full mission successes, one partial failure and one total loss of the spacecraft. In addition, one rocket and its payload were destroyed on the launch...

FOCAL (an acronym for Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens) is a proposed space telescope that would use the Sun as a gravity lens. The gravitational...

for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control...

missions), to be launched in 1991. Similar to the Vega program, each spacecraft would deploy one or more landers or balloons into the Venusian atmosphere...

counterspace threats by protecting spacecraft in space or protecting against attacks enabled by adversary spacecraft, requiring that the Space Force establish...

investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United States to achieve orbit. Over 90 space missions have been...

medium-lift launch vehicle capable of putting 600-kilogram (1,300 lb) class spacecrafts into 1,000-kilometre (620 mi) Sun-synchronous orbit had already begun...

planet, the spacecraft is being developed by Rocket Lab in collaboration with a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The spacecraft will consist...

its clarity and detail. Voyager 1 is a 722-kilogram (1,592 lb) robotic spacecraft on a mission to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar...

Mars in November or December 2026 during the year's launch window. The spacecraft will enter orbit around Mars before transferring to Phobos, where it will...

two-person space capsule Project Gemini after the zodiac sign because the spacecraft could carry two astronauts. Google named its current family of large language...

Studies of Eagle's estimated orbital trajectory have suggested that the spacecraft may still be in orbit as of 2021. Lunar Module Eagle prior to extraction...

This is a list of uncrewed spacecraft which have been intentionally destroyed at their objects of study, typically by hard landings or crash landings at...

carries responsibilities that are essential to the operation of a spacecraft. A spacecraft's cockpit, filled with sophisticated equipment, requires skills...

stay/no stay, when the spacecraft has completed a maneuver and has now "parked" in relation to another body, including spacecraft, orbiting the Earth or...

mission to study the Jovian system, possibly sharing a launch with a spacecraft which will make a flyby of Uranus. The goals of the planned Tianwen-4...

Mission and Spacecraft Library (MSL) is a reference web site, maintained by NASA, containing information about satellites. It contains a catalog of several...

vehicles and spacecraft to carry astronauts, and four crewed flights beginning in October 1968 demonstrated the ability of the spacecraft to carry out...

The Spacecraft Magnetic Test Facility, also known historically as the Attitude Control Test Facility, is an experimental spacecraft test facility at the...

exploration of Jupiter has been conducted via close observations by automated spacecraft. It began with the arrival of Pioneer 10 into the Jovian system in 1973...

combined fuel mass and size of the spacecraft. Hence the flight was optimised for a dual-launch strategy. The spacecraft elements include: Propulsion Module...

probes to all the planets of the outer Solar System. It called for four spacecraft, two of which would visit Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, while the other...

American-made spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Steve Altemus, CEO of IM, says Nova-C is the first spacecraft to use liquid...

Venera 4V-2 (Russian: Венера 4В-2) was a series of two identical spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union, consisting of Venera 15 and Venera 16. Both...

Earth's magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation. The spacecraft were launched on 13 March 2015 at 02:44 UTC....

artificial gravity for humans due to concerns about the size and cost of a spacecraft necessary to produce a useful centripetal force comparable to the gravitational...

Hayabusa (Japanese: はやぶさ; "Peregrine falcon") was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of...

 'probe') was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet robotic spacecraft launched between 1964 and 1970. The first series, based on the 3MV planetary...

that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. It was the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt and the first of five artificial objects...

for use in future planetary missions. Specifically, instruments on the spacecraft were to measure the structure, composition and dynamics of the ionosphere...

inside his spacecraft until it was safely aboard the recovery ship, and made a point of deliberately blowing the hatch to get out of the spacecraft, bruising...

2026 on the PSLV-C62 rideshare mission of the Indian rocket PSLV. The spacecraft was presumed lost when the rocket's third stage encountered an anomaly...

2021-01-05. Retrieved 2025-12-01. "U of A-led NASA Aspera mission hits spacecraft milestone | Steward Observatory". astro.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-01...

kilometers or 0.01 au from Earth (away from the sun). An example of a spacecraft designed to operate near the Earth–Sun L2 is the James Webb Space Telescope...

Rockot (SS-19 + Briz upper stage) launch vehicle on 17 March 2002. The spacecraft were launched to an initial altitude of approximately 500 km at a near-polar...

from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16 at 13:32 UTC, the Apollo spacecraft consisted of three parts: the command module (CM), which housed the three...

A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Reentry capsules are distinguished...

The Apollo spacecraft feasibility study was conducted by NASA from July 1960 through May 1961 to investigate preliminary designs for a post-Project Mercury...

Exploration Company (TEC) is a European aerospace company developing reusable spacecraft. TEC is headquartered in Munich, Bordeaux, and Oberpfaffenhofen with additional...

planet's surface, and better understand the planet's overall geology. The spacecraft's communication system will also be used to perform a gravity science experiment...

planned as a three-day mission. He named Mercury Spacecraft 15B Freedom 7 II in honor of his first spacecraft, but the mission was canceled. Shepard was designated...

possible. The spacecraft is paired with a communications relay, called Kenobi, that provides an interface to the Cygnus vehicle. The spacecraft is design...

would utilize a spacecraft launched on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL aircraft-borne rocket in mid-2026. The LINK robotic servicing spacecraft, designed and...

and future space telescopes designed to search for signs of life. The spacecraft launched on January 11, 2026 aboard a SpaceX rideshare mission "Twilight"...

smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a maritime ship, aircraft, or spacecraft. Examples include bombers converted to carry experimental aircraft to...

convinced that planetary systems did not exist around any of the stars) the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal...

NSSD – Spacecraft – Trajectory Details (SAS-B)". NASA. Archived from the original on 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2008-02-27. "NASA – NSSDC – Spacecraft – Details...

1978) Huygens spacecraft (carried by Cassini orbiter to Saturn's moon Titan) Saturn Atmospheric Entry Probe (concept for similar spacecraft entry probe...

telescope New Horizons, Pluto and KBO flyby probe Whipple shield, a type of spacecraft shielding Alcock, Charles; Brown, Michael; Tom, Gauron; Cate, Heneghan;...

against near-Earth objects (NEOs). It was designed to assess how much a spacecraft impact can deflect an asteroid by hitting it head-on. The target asteroid...

23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was permanently lost as it went into orbital insertion. The spacecraft encountered Mars on a trajectory that...

observation and space weather satellite. Within two months of launch the spacecraft was to test various technologies, such as deployment, vector control via...

defects in the spacecraft, which were corrected before crewed flights resumed.[citation needed] On February 12, 1961, the Soviet spacecraft Venera 1 was...

dictionary. Thruster may refer to: A thruster is a propulsive device used by spacecraft and watercraft for station keeping, attitude control, in the reaction...

missions and testing, assembly, preparation, or flight of crewed and robotic spacecraft. Not included are accidents or incidents associated with intercontinental...

The Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) is a spacecraft that extends the functional lifetime of another spacecraft through on-orbit satellite servicing. They...

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and...

stability planned for the now canceled Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12-unit CubeSat that is also testing a navigation system that is...

environment, the Navy sends a robot to enter the spacecraft first, which locates and opens a panel near the spacecraft door. As the robot's cameras focus on the...

Spacecraft 2 is the first of two active Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft developed and built under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft was...

astrodynamics, orbital station-keeping is keeping a spacecraft at a fixed distance from another spacecraft or celestial body. It requires a series of orbital...

forecasts. To this purpose the Vigil mission will place for the first time a spacecraft at Sun-Earth Lagrange point 5 (L5) from where it would get a 'side' view...

Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the practice of sending spacecraft beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications...

The timeline of the Galileo spacecraft spans its launch in 1989 to the conclusion of its mission when it dove into and destroyed itself in the atmosphere...

Moon. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, transmitting those images to Earth until the spacecraft were destroyed upon...

Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process...

Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft or launch vehicle in a body of water, usually by parachute. This has been the primary recovery method...

& Feasibility Revisited differentiated several types of interstellar spacecraft: those with a population bigger than 100,000 are called world ships, while...

launched from the Moon aboard the Apollo Lunar Module Ascent Stage 3 spacecraft Walter Schirra (USA) – launched aboard a Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (1962–1968)...

of spaceflight only nation states had the resources to develop and fly spacecraft. Both the U.S. space program and Soviet space program were operated using...

program orbiters were enlarged versions of the Mariner 9 spacecraft. Later Mariner-based spacecraft include Galileo and Magellan, while the second-generation...

detail by three other probes: the twin Voyager spacecraft, and the Saturn orbiting Cassini spacecraft. Out of these, Cassini investigated Enceladus in...

ballistics and celestial mechanics to rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from laws of motion...

pilots; Belyayev was the most experienced with 900 flying hours. The Soviet spacecraft were more automated than the American counterparts, so significant piloting...

part of the Buran program for a variety of payloads including the Buran spacecraft. Control system main developer enterprise was the Khartron NPO "Electropribor"...

physics What causes the unexpected change in acceleration for flybys of spacecraft? More unsolved problems in physics The flyby anomaly is a discrepancy...

number of different spacecraft have been used to carry cargo to and from space stations. This list does not include crewed spacecraft. Comparison of crewed...

In spacecraft, a Command-Loss Timer (CLT) is a software timer within the command and data system (CDS) which is restarted every time the spacecraft receives...

once-in-13-years window when Earth is properly aligned with Jupiter. The spacecraft would use the gravitational pull of Jupiter as a slingshot to Triton for...

resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft. Hubble features a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror, and its five main instruments...

imaging spectrometers; one used on the New Horizons spacecraft and the other used on the Rosetta spacecraft. Alice is a small telescope with a spectrograph...

and organisations. The primary contractor for the spacecraft was Thoth Technology Inc. The spacecraft would consist of four parts: an apogee kick engine...

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to search for the existence of water on Mars and provide support for missions to Mars, as...

it is ready, a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will launch an Orion spacecraft carrying the four astronaut crew members. With Starship, both vehicles...

The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California)...

selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. The aircraft industry is the...

and continued with telescopic observations, and then by visiting spacecraft. Spacecraft have performed multiple flybys, orbits, and landings on the planet...

The Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets is a bi-monthly (six issues per year) peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Institute of Aeronautics...

programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet...

at Energia's factory in Korolyov. During post-production testing, the spacecraft reportedly sustained major damage to its heat shield that could not be...

A space probe is an uncrewed robotic spacecraft designed to explore outer space and transmit scientific data back to Earth. Space probes are used to investigate...

achieved. Starliner-1 was expected to mark the first reuse of a Starliner spacecraft. The vehicle initially chosen was the capsule flown on the first uncrewed...

attempted to send spacecraft to orbit the Moon, successfully sent one spacecraft to fly by the Moon, and successfully sent one spacecraft to investigate...

cost-reduced space telescopes for Earth observation and astronomy. These spacecraft would have employed a laser-optical system for ground communications,...

two-body approximation is a method to simplify trajectory calculations for spacecraft in a multiple-body environment. The simplification is achieved by dividing...

the twenty spacecraft, #10, 12, 15, 17, and 19, were not flown. Spacecraft #3 and #4 were destroyed during uncrewed test flights. Spacecraft #11 sank and...

seventh flight of the Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS as under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program. The Cygnus spacecraft docked with the ISS on April...

the spacecraft was returned to Lockheed Martin's factory in Colorado for storage, and the Atlas V launch vehicle intended to launch the spacecraft was...

of spacecraft that will show the viability of water electrolysis propulsion and interplanetary optical navigation to orbit the Moon. Both spacecraft will...

Europa from March 2031. Europa Clipper is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched by NASA. The mission used a gravity assist from Mars in...

propellant tanks to allow the spacecraft to hover and laterally move over the lunar surface An uncrewed cargo spacecraft, providing supplies and materials...

warload. For a rocket, the payload can be a satellite, space probe, or spacecraft carrying humans, animals, or cargo. For a ballistic missile, the payload...

certification of a spacecraft or launch vehicle as capable of safely transporting humans. There is no one particular standard for human-rating a spacecraft or launch...

and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense. Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate a spacecraft, that is, to increase...

Multi-mission Modular Spacecraft, also known as the MMS, was originally designed by NASA to serve the largest array of functions for the space program...

dark matter and galaxies and measure how these properties change as the spacecraft looks further back in time. Highly precise images are required to provide...

Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft between star systems. Due to the vast distances between the Solar System and nearby stars...

Agency (DARPA) selected Boeing for Phase 2/3 to build and test an XS-1 spacecraft (now called the Experimental Spaceplane program). At the time, test flights...

experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent...

and the first asteroid rover in the world. On 9 May 2003, the MUSES-C spacecraft carrying MINERVA was launched from Kagoshima Space Center, and was named...

engineer Mark Rober and Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer. Resilience was the first spacecraft to orbit with an all-rookie crew since Shenzhou 7 in 2008. The last time...

in reference to one of the largest, the Hubble). MOST was the first spacecraft dedicated to the study of asteroseismology, subsequently followed by the...

between the spacecraft and the Agena, and then calculated the required actions using the onboard computer. Lovell then flew the spacecraft accordingly...

stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to re-enter...

the launcher of crewed Soyuz spacecraft under the Soyuz programme, and of the derivative uncrewed Progress cargo spacecraft. Despite this recognition, the...

This is a list of crewed and uncrewed flights of Soyuz series spacecraft. The Soyuz programme is an ongoing human spaceflight programme which was initiated...

is a proposed spacecraft that would combine beamed-powered propulsion, electromagnetic propulsion, and nuclear propulsion. The spacecraft would include...

return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner. Instead, the Boeing spacecraft returned uncrewed on September 7, 2024, and successfully landed at the...

The following is a list of starships, cruisers, battleships, and other spacecraft in the Star Wars films, books, and video games. Within the fictional universe...

orbit around the Sun, Musk stated that SpaceX may one day launch a small spacecraft or Starship to catch up with the Roadster and take photographs or even...

Ulysses 31, a French-Japanese anime television program Ulixes, a fictional spacecraft in the 4th season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ulysse (Rebel), a 1703...

number of reusable super-heavy lift vehicle proposals. These preliminary spacecraft designs were known under various names (Mars Colonial Transporter, Interplanetary...

arriving at Saturn around a decade later. The ESA chart shows that the spacecraft will be composed of two parts which will need to be assembled while in...

launched two piloted spacecraft, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4, in essentially identical orbits, on August 11 and 12, 1962. The two spacecraft came within approximately...

v t e Reusable launch systems and spacecraft Launch systems Active Falcon 9 (first stage) Falcon Heavy (core stages) Long March 10B (first stage) New Glenn...

rest of the Ares 3 crew, on their way back to Earth aboard the Hermes spacecraft, so as not to distract them. Watney plans to drive 3,235 kilometres (2...

mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraft, GRAIL A (Ebb) and GRAIL B (Flow), were launched on 10 September 2011...

Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission and NASA launched the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft to study the atmosphere of Mars. In March 2025, NASA launched two astronomy...

capability between conventional heat shields (which are useful for taking a spacecraft from orbital velocity down to several times the speed of sound) and conventional...

A spacecraft prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a spacecraft, and its purpose is often analogous...

"Moon"), sometimes called Lunik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. The...

complementary and contextual to past, present, and future missions. The spacecraft would visit 14 asteroids, and would focus on members of eight known collisional...

communications terminal. The mission ended on April 18, 2014, when the spacecraft's controllers intentionally crashed LADEE into the far side of the Moon...

continuities of the Battlestar Galactica franchise, the main setting is a spacecraft called the Battlestar Galactica. In both series, the Galactica is a large...

and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space (now...

System. One of the main goals of Constellation was the development of spacecraft and booster vehicles to replace the Space Shuttle. NASA had already begun...

and created a small amount of artificial gravity by spinning the two spacecraft connected by a tether. Gordon also performed two extra-vehicular activities...

RElations Observatory) is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft (STEREO-A, STEREO-B) were launched in 2006 into orbits around the Sun...

recover, but due to a malfunction of the attitude control system, the spacecraft was oriented upside-down, and the firing put the craft into a higher orbit...

The Star Trek franchise features many spacecraft. Various space vessels make up the primary settings of the Star Trek television series, films, and expanded...

development of a spacecraft engine using a Hall-effect thruster (HET), known as the Astra Spacecraft Engine. Astra sells these spacecraft engines for use...

spacecraft was not in the correct orientation and one of the two radio antennas was not operating. The sideways orientation prevented the spacecraft from...

orbit called P/2. This type of orbit is currently in use by the TESS spacecraft, which is also performing whole-sky surveys, although TESS is primarily...

mission with pilot David Scott, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft; the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control...

and Evaluation (DDT&E) Considerations for Safe and Reliable Human Rated Spacecraft Systems, Vol. II Archived October 25, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, June...

"fastest spacecraft" depends on the reference frame used. Because of the influence of gravity, maximum velocities are usually attained when a spacecraft is...

Mission duration 5 years (planned) 7 years, 3 months and 25 days (elasped) Spacecraft properties Manufacturer Leonardo OHB Italia Launch mass 830 kilograms...

Faget was the designer of the Mercury spacecraft, and contributed to the later Gemini and Apollo spacecraft as well as the Space Shuttle. Faget was...

A thruster is a spacecraft propulsion device used for orbital station-keeping, attitude control, or long-duration, low-thrust acceleration, often as part...

distance of 399,806 kilometers (248,428 mi). Soviet spacecraft Vega 1 and Vega 2 and ESA spacecraft Giotto all made a flyby of Halley's Comet the year...

Incorporated is an American spacecraft propulsion company that builds thrusters, electronics, and various systems for spacecraft. Busek was founded in 1985...

members to and from the base to an orbiting crewed spacecraft. There would have been three precursor spacecraft to Mars to set up three bases on the planet to...

pronounced /dɛltə viː/, as used in spacecraft flight dynamics, is a measure of the impulse per unit of spacecraft mass that is needed to perform a maneuver...

accelerated to high energies throughout the solar system. After launch, the spacecraft took several months to transit to about 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) away...

effects on spacecraft are radiation damage and spacecraft charging. Radiation (high-energy particles) passes through the skin of the spacecraft and into...

to the discovery of the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. The TIROS-1 spacecraft, launched on April 1, 1960, as part of NASA's Television Infrared Observation...

flight test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and its main objective was to test the Orion spacecraft, especially its heat shield...

a dozen spacecraft equipment with HPGP thrusters have been launched to space, including the Planet (formerly Skybox Imaging) SkySat spacecraft. HPGP is...

and split it into different spacecraft: Explorer, Lightning, Pioneer, and Photon. Explorer is a high delta-V spacecraft designed for deep space missions...

A sleeper ship is a hypothetical type of crewed spacecraft, or starship in which most or all of the crew spend the journey in some form of hibernation...

of the "second step" of the China Manned Space Program. The Shenzhou spacecraft carrying the three crew members was launched 25 September 2008, by a Long...

California. Founded in January 2021, the company designs, builds, and flies spacecraft that process pharmaceuticals in microgravity. The company targets small...

direct-landing spacecraft in two smaller parts which would combine in Earth orbit. A LOR mission would involve a single rocket launching two spacecraft: a mother...

mission. It carried five scientific instruments. The spacecraft was monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command...

(WINE) is a US project developing a refuelable steam engine system for spacecraft propulsion. WINE developed a method of extracting volatiles from ice,...

would outpace micrometeoroids as the primary ablative risk to orbiting spacecraft. At the time, it was widely thought that drag from the upper atmosphere...

longitudinal variations for effective space weather forecasting. The spacecraft is in the process of receiving internal clearances from ISRO. DISHA-H...

towards the spacecraft. On 1 October 2024, ISRO announced the dates of the mission. The launch date was set to 29 March 2028. The spacecraft will journey...

in 1996. The first spacecraft to impact the Earth's Moon was the USSR Luna 2 on September 14, 1959. For a complete list of spacecraft impacts and controlled...

October 1967, Venera 4 became the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet. This spacecraft first showed the major gas of Venus's atmosphere...

considered valuable as the last of its kind, and Musa has offered to trade the spacecraft in return for the skull of last Kazakh khan Kenesary Kasymov. Kasymov...

Earth Escape Explorer spacecraft is a student-driven effort at University of Colorado Boulder to design and build the spacecraft as part of the NASA CubeQuest...

craft. These definitions were analogously applied to spacecraft when the first crewed spacecraft were designed in the late 1950s. These rotations are...

according to reports published by cybersecurity firm SentinelOne. 17K-AM VA spacecraft Strela (rocket) UR-100 UR-200 P-70 Ametist (NATO codename: SS-N-7 Starbright)...

Argo (Russian: Арго) is a proposed Russian reusable cargo spacecraft being developed by Reusable Space Transport Systems (MTKS), a private company. Its...

the spacecraft is still in generally good condition. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center managed the development and integration of the ACE spacecraft. The...

Spaceship Earth (or Spacecraft Earth or Spaceship Planet Earth) is a worldview encouraging everyone on Earth to act as a harmonious crew working toward...

there was growing international interest in the development of reusable spacecraft; at the time, only the superpowers of the era, the Soviet Union and the...

Artificial satellites are human-made spacecraft placed into orbit around Earth or another celestial body. They are distinct from natural satellites such...

partially-reusable (excluding orbital section and thermal protection shield) crewed spacecraft concept by RSC Energia. Due to a lack of funding from the European Space...

sail spacecraft are spacecraft that use large reflective sails to obtain propulsion from the pressure of sunlight. Unlike conventional spacecraft, which...

A Mars flyby is a movement of spacecraft passing in the vicinity of the planet Mars, but not entering orbit or landing on it. Uncrewed space probes have...

Ariane 5 rocket, vehicle no. 501, on 4 June 1996. It carried the Cluster spacecraft, a constellation of four European Space Agency research satellites. The...

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's space station concepts from 1883, and rotating spacecraft for artificial gravity since 1891 (Hermann Ganswindt). Herman Potočnik...

Mars 1M was a series of two uncrewed spacecraft which were used in the first Soviet missions to explore Mars. They were the earliest missions of the Mars...

152830 Dinkinesh, a main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by NASA's Lucy spacecraft during its flyby of Dinkinesh on 1 November 2023. The moon consists of...

Apollo spacecraft, and are currently used by the SpaceX Dragon 2, Orion, and Soyuz spacecraft. The Soviet Vostok 1, the first crewed spacecraft, used ablative...

it was planned to share the launch vehicle with the Psyche and Janus spacecraft and fly its own trajectory for a Mars gravity assist to slingshot into...

suspended or cancelled because of political, budgetary, or other reasons. The spacecraft were already assembled at the time of suspension/cancellation, so these...

replacement/rescue missions and mixed human/cargo missions. Uncrewed visiting spacecraft are excluded (see Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station...

the two planetary bodies and the Coriolis and centrifugal force on a spacecraft. Halo orbits exist in any three-body system, e.g., a Sun–Earth–orbiting...

the cause of the accident was investigated and improvements made to the spacecraft and safety procedures, and uncrewed test flights made. Determined to prevent...

Field propulsion refers to spacecraft propulsion concepts in which thrust arises from interactions with external fields or ambient media, rather than primarily...

The Gemini Guidance Computer (sometimes Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer, OBC) was a digital, serial computer designed for Project Gemini, America's...

interplanetary uncrewed solar sail spacecraft Project Icarus (interstellar), a design study of an interstellar spacecraft based on Project Daedalus Project...

Spacecraft and their missions are given descriptive, sometimes technical names, by scientists, engineers and administrators involved. Space agencies sometimes...

the orbit (periapsis). The resulting drag slows the spacecraft. Aerobraking is used when a spacecraft requires a low orbit after arriving at a body with...

during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, that planned to send a spacecraft to encounter an asteroid, and then to rendezvous with a comet and fly...

up previous Apollo lunar missions, they were familiar with the Apollo spacecraft and had more time for geology training. Launched at 12:33 a.m. Eastern...

anything from minor component degradation to the complete destruction of a spacecraft or missile. The impactor, as well as the surface it hits, can undergo...

2011, that competed in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) contest to land a spacecraft on the Moon. SpaceIL successfully launched its Beresheet lander on 22...

each. During proximity operations one spacecraft acts as a Chaser and other acts as a target. Both spacecraft were launched together from the first launch...

HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe was the first rocket and spacecraft combination built by Copenhagen Suborbitals, a Danish organization attempting to perform the first...

data (which is categorized as "catalog") and scientific images Spacecraft – any spacecraft except space telescopes Telescope – ground-based and space telescopes;...

Beach, California, to construct the spacecraft. NASA initially directed the TRW Company to develop the Pioneer spacecraft to ensure that future missions could...

the spacecraft still on the ground and let the system activate to carry the spacecraft flying away, then separate in the air and make the spacecraft land...

launched via a Saturn V rocket, and was the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). The...

operate as an independent space station, using specially modified Progress spacecraft for station-keeping. The NEM-derived base module is expected to be launched...

September 10, 2024, as the 14th crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, Isaacman and his crew of three — Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna...

a constellation of at least three spacecraft in Molniya orbits. If three spacecraft are used, then each spacecraft will be active for a period of eight...

and Vega 2 were uncrewed spacecraft launched in a cooperative effort among the Soviet Union, who also provided the spacecraft and launch vehicle, Austria...

A trans-lunar injection (TLI) is a propulsive maneuver used to send a spacecraft toward the Moon. Typical lunar transfer trajectories approximate Hohmann...

shuttlecraft, also known as a shuttle spacecraft, shuttle ship, drop shuttle, drop spacecraft, or dropship, is a type of spacecraft described in theory and science...

vital two-way communications link that tracks and controls interplanetary spacecraft and receives the images and scientific information they collect. The others...

Laboratory designed and built the spacecraft, which was launched on August 12, 2018. It became the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person, honoring...

experimental equal-area canard airplane Dragon 2 DragonFly, a prototype reusable spacecraft by SpaceX Dragonfly (Titan space probe), a planned NASA rotorcraft and...

1965, at 16:07:15 UTC, the REP was released into orbit from the Gemini 5 spacecraft. Gemini 5 doubled the U.S. space-flight record of the Gemini 4 mission...

and to obtain measurements that cannot yet be performed from a robotic spacecraft: Morphological surface properties Environment conditions (e.g. dust, gravity...

This is a list of satellites and spacecraft that have been given USA designations by the United States Air Force. These designations have been applied...

The first close-up observation of an asteroid was made by the Galileo spacecraft. Several dedicated missions to asteroids were subsequently launched by...

with Mariner 3 known as Mariner-Mars 1964) was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to...

NASA on the Artemis programme, especially manufacturing of the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module (ESM). ESA launches and operates uncrewed missions...

on spacecraft materials. Project FIRE used both ground testing in wind tunnels and flight tests to test the effects of reentry heating on spacecraft materials...

served as the Vice President of Spacecraft at Firefly Aerospace since 2026. She previously served as the company's Spacecraft Program Director, where she...

Composition Explorer (ACE) was damaged by the solar activity. Numerous other spacecraft were damaged or experienced downtime due to various issues. Some of them...

directly by using laser interferometry. The LISA concept features three spacecraft arranged in an equilateral triangle with each side 2.5 million kilometres...

that is able to repair or build spacecraft similar to maritime shipyards on Earth. They remove the need for new spacecraft to perform a space launch to reach...

were retrieved in mid-air as they floated down on parachutes. Later, spacecraft had digital imaging systems and downloaded the images via encrypted radio...

Explorer S-56 failed in flight, and the satellite never reached orbit. The spacecraft consisted of alternating layers of aluminium foil and Mylar polyester...

transmitting telemetry and receiving commands extended from the sides of the spacecraft. 12 helium-pressurized hydrogen peroxide thrusters provided attitude control...

suborbital flights (e.g. ballistic missiles, sounding rockets, experimental spacecraft). 100 200 300 400 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010...

often referred to as the Starship Enterprise, is the name of several spacecraft in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The Enterprise made for the...

launch vehicles: full reusability of even the second-stage and orbital spacecraft as well. The large payload capacity of the launch vehicle placed it into...

another (translational force). Reaction wheels are used primarily by spacecraft for three-axis fine attitude control, but can also be used for fast detumbling...

Transporter-7 as part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). The spacecraft began operations on April 19, 2023, and remained operational (except for...

the spacecraft, was in communication via voice loop to specialists in a Staff Support Room (or "back room"), who focused on specific spacecraft systems...

the laboratory is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also...

thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. An ion thruster creates a cloud of positive ions from a neutral...

European Space Agency, became the first spacecraft to land on Titan in 2005 and remains the only spacecraft to have done so, returning the first direct...

The NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) is a computer developed as a standard component for the MultiMission Modular Spacecraft at the Goddard Space...

Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) is a DARPA program to develop a robotic spacecraft capable of rendezvousing, inspecting, and repairing aging or broken satellites...

of the Progress M-09M and Kounotori 2 spacecraft, the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-21 and Progress M-10M spacecraft, and the final rendezvous with the ISS...

the mission early. While oriented for retrofire, the main engine on the spacecraft, dubbed Ironman One, fails. Mission Control determines that Ironman does...

Propulsion Laboratory and Ball Aerospace. EPOXI uses the Deep Impact spacecraft in a campaign consisting of two missions: the Deep Impact Extended Investigation...

Budget Authorization Act on October 11, 2010. NASA brought the Orion spacecraft back to life from the defunct Constellation program and successfully test-launched...

Assembly, and Manufacturing 1) was a 2016-2024 conceptual NASA mission and spacecraft designed to test on-orbit refueling of satellites. The program was cancelled...

perigee, circularise and reach GSO. Once in a viable geostationary orbit, spacecraft can change longitudinal position by adjusting their semi-major axis such...

atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend...

a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an uncrewed solar-sail spacecraft named Cosmos 1 was launched into space at 19:46:09 UTC (15:46:09 EDT)...

Virginia, which houses much of the museum's collection of aircraft, spacecraft, and rockets, which are too large to be displayed at the main facility...

process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for humans flying...

were to qualify the spacecraft for space flight and qualify the system for an upcoming primate suborbital flight. The spacecraft tested its instrumentation...

Magnetic Field. The spacecraft were important collectors of heliophysics and space weather data. In conjunction with other spacecraft these, for the first...

thus providing an accurate estimate of the probability of penetration in spacecraft structures by meteoroids and allowing a more confident definition of the...

30 December 1906] – 14 January 1966) was a Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer who led the development of the Soviet space program during the...

(Mariner Mars 69A and Mariner Mars 69B) were two uncrewed NASA robotic spacecraft that completed the first dual mission to Mars in 1969 as part of NASA's...

A flyby (/ˈflaɪbaɪ/) is a spaceflight operation in which a spacecraft passes near another body, which is usually a target of the space exploration mission...

Command module Columbia (CM-107) is the spacecraft that served as the command module during Apollo 11, which was the first mission to land humans on the...

operations are led by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). The spacecraft was assembled in the United States at the University of Colorado Boulder's...

lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed spacecraft to...

Apollo program missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a lunar lander travel to lunar orbit. The lunar lander then independently...

An orbital spaceflight (or orbital flight) is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least...

assembly on an operational Falcon 9 flight. A number of other 3D-printed spacecraft assemblies have been ground-tested, including high-temperature, high-pressure...

meaning small departures from equilibrium grow over time. As a result, spacecraft in these Lagrangian point orbits must use their propulsion systems to...

launch. Most space launches carry a spacecraft that does not include people. The payload may be a robotic spacecraft or a warhead. In contrast, human spaceflight...

The mission failed because the third stage failed to ignite and the spacecraft did not achieve orbit. The objectives of the flight were to test vehicle...

Bi-sat Observations of the Lunar Atmosphere above Swirls (BOLAS) is a spacecraft mission concept that would orbit the Moon at very low altitude in order...

Indeed, the regolith was found to be quite firm by the robotic Surveyor spacecraft that preceded Apollo, and during the Apollo landings the astronauts often...

expanded to refer also to the fact that communication with spacecraft can be blocked while the spacecraft is on the far side of the Moon, during Apollo space...

spaceflight Voskhod (spacecraft), a spacecraft used in the Voskhod programme Voskhod (rocket), a rocket that was used to launch Voskhod spacecraft Voskhod, Russia...

that an alignment of planets in the late 1970s would enable a single spacecraft to visit all of the outer planets, including Pluto, by using gravity assists...

with another spacecraft, its sister Gemini 7. Although the Soviet Union had twice previously launched simultaneous pairs of Vostok spacecraft, these established...

measurements at high and low altitudes in the same field-line region. The DE-1 spacecraft (high-altitude mission) uses an elliptical orbit selected to allow (1)...

(CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the Moon between...

position light, is a source of illumination on a watercraft, aircraft or spacecraft, meant to give information on the craft's position, heading, or status...

provide observations complementing the first D3S mission, SWING. The spacecraft, based on the HyperSat platform, will include three instruments developed...

dynamics significantly. Important examples include propellant slosh in spacecraft tanks and rockets (especially upper stages), and the free surface effect...

Zarya in 1998. It inherited the Soyuz program, the most flown crewed spacecraft in history. Its derivations, most recently Soyuz MS and Progress MS, service...

sub-orbital spacecraft. It was formed in 1996 specifically to be a contender for the Ansari X Prize for the first non-governmental reusable crewed spacecraft. The...

the lander from completing its mission. After six days in orbit, the spacecraft was redirected into Earth's atmosphere, where it burned up in Earth's...

traveled: 34.5 million miles (55,500,000 km) Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB SA-208 Spacecraft: Apollo CSM-118 Epoch: January 21, 1974 Perigee: 422 km (262 mi) Apogee:...

No spacecraft has yet landed on Europa, although there have been several proposed exploration missions. In September 2022, the Juno spacecraft flew...