Spacecraft are vehicles designed for travel in space. Their preferred plural form is spacecrafts; however, you may sometimes get away with using “spaceships”.
The astronauts aboard their spacecraft were excited about reaching Mars. Hopefully, they would land it safely; flight controllers were confident it would go smoothly.
A vehicle designed to travel in space.
Spacecraft (also referred to as a spaceship or orbital vehicle) are devices designed for space travel and operation, from satellites and Mars rovers to spaceships that transport people.
Spacecraft are divided into two general categories, unmanned space probes and manned spaceships. Unmanned probes typically use rocket propulsion while manned spaceships usually rely on both rocket propulsion and fuel cells as sources of power.
Spacecraft designs vary depending on their intended function; for instance, manned spacecraft must be capable of supporting human life should a mission fail and it must also withstand the stresses associated with reentry and landing.
Other spacecraft are designed to orbit specific planets or stars. This allows them to gather data on our solar system. However, some instruments on board these spacecraft might become inoperable when an object blocks out sunlight, or with extreme changes in temperature.
A group of vehicles designed to travel in space.
Since 1957, spacecraft have enabled humans to gain more insight into our solar system’s planets, stars and objects. There are various types of spacecraft available which can be used for communication, earth observation, meteorology studies, navigation or planetary exploration purposes. Spacecraft can either be uncrewed (carrying only equipment and no crew members) or crewed.
Most spacecraft are powered by rockets that launch them into orbit or interplanetary trajectories, where they use their own propulsion systems to move about within space. Starships that remain beyond Earth orbit are known as such vessels.
There are only a handful of reusable spacecraft, like the Apollo lunar landing module and Russian Soyuz capsules that carry astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station, that have the ability to fly repeatedly; examples include the Apollo lunar landing module and Soyuz capsules from Russia; non-winged space capsules and winged spaceplanes also fall into this category; there is no singular noun for spacecraft collectively known as fleet in existence today; nonetheless some have used such terms historically.
A fleet of vehicles designed to travel in space.
Spacecraft are used for numerous purposes, such as communication, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation and planetary exploration. They may be either manned or unmanned and operated autonomously or telerobotically – with astronauts or other people aboard carrying astronaut suits, while unmanned craft are managed solely by their onboard systems. Space probes used exclusively in orbit around planetary bodies while those that travel between worlds are known as starships.
Spacecraft can refer to either multiple spacecrafts (plural), or just one (singular). While adding the letter s is not standard usage, Webster’s Online Dictionary recognizes it as acceptable form.
Orbital spacecraft are divided into either non-winged capsules or winged spaceplanes depending on how they’re designed to safely return to Earth. Most orbital craft are expendable; however, some like Vostok 1 which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961 are reusable; similarly the Mars Exploration Rovers contain both non-expendable lander and booster components that can be reused multiple times.
A collection of vehicles designed to travel in space.
Scientists and engineers alike have designed spacecraft with specific missions in mind. While some types of scientific spacecraft carry instruments for collecting data on magnetic fields, radiation exposure, the Earth and its atmosphere, stars like our Sun, planets with moons orbiting them and other astronomical objects or phenomena – applications spacecraft serve many other uses such as communications, Earth observation, military reconnaissance missions, navigation/position-location or power transmission services.
Spacecraft are further classified by their recoveryability or expendability. Recoverable spacecraft include capsules (which have no wings like airplanes) and winged spaceplanes like NASA’s Apollo lunar landing vehicles, while expendable ones are typically either recoverable or expendable.
Additionally, spacecraft aren’t usually self-propelled; their propulsion comes from rockets which launch them vertically into space or orbit and carry them to higher altitudes, sometimes beyond Earth’s gravitational pull – these craft are known as deep space probes. There are some fully reusable space vehicles such as New Shepard and SpaceShipTwo which perform suborbital flights.