In contrast, the US-developed space shuttles are reusable space transport vehicles. Each shuttle consists of a reusable orbiter, a large expendable external fuel tank, and a pair of reusable solid-fuel booster rockets. Unlike the single-use spacecraft, the shuttle is assisted by its main engines and two reusable boosters. Actually, no true reusable launch system exists but the space shuttles are the closest examples.
The vehicle's orbiter and most of the solid rocket boosters are reusable, but the external tank is not. The orbiters and boosters require several months of work to refit them for each launch. The shuttles are generally considered to provide the best prospect of lower-cost access to space.
The reusable launch vehicle is capable of launching more than one payload into space and can transport more cargo than a single-use craft. Manned spacecraft have only managed to fly humans to the International Space Station and the moon. Space probes are robotic spacecraft used for scientific research while artificial satellites orbit a planetary body.
Voyagers 1 and 2, Pioneers 10 and 11 and New Horizons are the only spacecraft on course to travel beyond the solar system. Most spacecraft are not recoverable once they launch, but a few have managed to travel back to Earth. On the other hand, a space station is a type of spacecraft that is capable of supporting human life and is designed to remain in outer space for long.
Unlike other spacecraft, space stations generally lack propulsion and landing mechanism. The International Space Station is the only operational and inhabited of its kind.
Tiangong-2 remains uncrewed in space but periodically sends back data. The United States, the EU, Russia, India, China, and several private companies are planning to build space stations in the coming decades. Germany became the first country to successfully launch a spacecraft when its V-2 traveled beyond miles in June The launch of Sputnik marked the beginning of the space race that was characterized by scientific, political, military, and technological developments.
There are three types of spacecraft; crewed spacecraft, spaceplanes, and unmanned spacecraft. Vostok 1 was the first manned spacecraft when it carried Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin to space in Print This Close Window. The Space Shuttle is the world's first reusable spacecraft, and the first spacecraft in history that can carry large satellites both to and from orbit.
The Shuttle launches like a rocket, maneuvers in Earth orbit like a spacecraft and lands like an airplane. Each of the three Space Shuttle orbiters now in operation -- Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour -- is designed to fly at least missions. So far, altogether they have flown a combined total of less than one-fourth of that. Columbia and the STS crew were lost Feb. Discovery was delivered in November Atlantis was delivered in April
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