Spacecraft
Ariane 5 lifts off with the Rosetta space probe on March 2, 2004.
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航天器（亦称空间飞行器、太空飞行器），是航行于太空中的飞行器，包括发射航天飞行器的火箭、人造卫星 、空间探测器、宇宙飞船、航天飞机、各种空间站。
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.
Contents
Overview
The term spaceship is generally applied only to spacecraft capable of transporting people.
A space suit 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.
Examples of past or existing spacecraft
Manned
- Apollo Spacecraft
- Gemini Spacecraft
- International Space Station
- Mir
- Mercury Spacecraft
- Shuttle Buran
- Shenzhou Spacecraft
- Space Shuttle
- Soyuz Spacecraft
- SpaceShipOne
- Voskhod Spacecraft
- Vostok Spacecraft
Unmanned
- Cassini-Huygens
- Cluster
- Deep Space 1
- Genesis
- Mars Exploration Rover
- Mars Global Surveyor
- Mars Pathfinder
- Pioneer 10
- Pioneer 11
- Progress
- SOHO
- Stardust
- Viking 1
- Viking 2
- Voyager 1
- Voyager 2
- WMAP
Spacecraft under development
- Crew Exploration Vehicle
- Kliper
- Automated Transfer Vehicle
- H-II Transfer Vehicle
- Ansari X Prize (incl. a list of spacecraft in various stages of completion as of 2005)
The US Space Command, according to its Long Range Plan, is currently planning to develop a weaponized spaceship, which has yet to be announced.
