Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle that travels through space. Spacecraft include robotic or unmanned space probes as well as manned vehicles. The term is sometimes also used to describe artificial satellites, which have similar design criteria.
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Overview
The term spaceship is generally applied only to spacecraft capable of transporting people.
A spacesuit has at times been called a miniature spacecraft or spaceship, emphasizing its purpose of keeping its wearer alive while traveling in the vacuum of outer space.
The spacecraft is one of the primal elements in science fiction. Numerous short stories and novels are built up around various ideas for spacecraft. Some hard science fiction books focus on the technical details of the craft, while others treat the spacecraft as a given and delve little into its actual implementation.
A few examples of existing spacecraft
- Cassini-Huygens
- Cluster
- Genesis
- International Space Station
- Mir
- Pioneer 10
- Pioneer 11
- Progress
- Shuttle Buran
- Shenzhou
- Space Shuttle
- SOHO
- Soyuz spacecraft
- SpaceShipOne
- Stardust
- Viking 1
- Viking 2
- Vostok spacecraft
- Voyager 1
- Voyager 2
- WMAP
Proposed spacecraft
- Crew Exploration Vehicle
- Kliper
- Ansari X Prize (incl. a list of spacecraft in various stages of completion as of 2005)
Fictional spacecraft
See List of fictional spaceships
See also
- attitude control
- expendable launch systems
- space shuttle
- starship
- spacecraft propulsion
- thruster
- UFO
External links
- NASA: Space Science Spacecraft Missions
- Gunter's Space Page - Complete information on spacecraft
- Cinespaceships - Database on spaceships in movie
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