Manned spacecraft Spacecraft

apollo 17 command module in lunar orbit

as of 2016, 3 nations have flown manned spacecraft: ussr/russia, usa, , china. first manned spacecraft vostok 1, carried soviet cosmonaut yuri gagarin space in 1961, , completed full earth orbit. there 5 other manned missions used vostok spacecraft. second manned spacecraft named freedom 7, , performed sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961 carrying american astronaut alan shepard altitude of on 187 kilometers (116 mi). there 5 other manned missions using mercury spacecraft.

other soviet manned spacecraft include voskhod, soyuz, flown unmanned zond/l1, l3, tks, , salyut , mir manned space stations. other american manned spacecraft include gemini spacecraft, apollo spacecraft, skylab space station, , space shuttle undetached european spacelab , private spacehab space stations-modules. china developed, did not fly shuguang, , using shenzhou (its first manned mission in 2003).

except space shuttle, of recoverable manned orbital spacecraft space capsules.

manned space capsules

the international space station, manned since november 2000, joint venture between russia, united states, canada , several other countries.

spaceplanes


columbia orbiter landing

some reusable vehicles have been designed manned spaceflight, , these called spaceplanes. first example of such north american x-15 spaceplane, conducted 2 manned flights reached altitude of on 100 km in 1960s. first reusable spacecraft, x-15, air-launched on suborbital trajectory on july 19, 1963.

the first partially reusable orbital spacecraft, winged non-capsule, space shuttle, launched usa on 20th anniversary of yuri gagarin s flight, on april 12, 1981. during shuttle era, 6 orbiters built, of have flown in atmosphere , 5 of have flown in space. enterprise used approach , landing tests, launching of boeing 747 sca , gliding deadstick landings @ edwards afb, california. first space shuttle fly space columbia, followed challenger, discovery, atlantis, , endeavour. endeavour built replace challenger when lost in january 1986. columbia broke during reentry in february 2003.

the first automatic partially reusable spacecraft buran-class shuttle, launched ussr on november 15, 1988, although made 1 flight , unmanned. spaceplane designed crew , resembled u.s. space shuttle, although drop-off boosters used liquid propellants , main engines located @ base of external tank in american shuttle. lack of funding, complicated dissolution of ussr, prevented further flights of buran. space shuttle subsequently modified allow autonomous re-entry in case of necessity.

per vision space exploration, space shuttle retired in 2011 due old age , high cost of program reaching on billion dollars per flight. shuttle s human transport role replaced space x s dragon v2 , boeing s cst-100 starliner no later 2017. shuttle s heavy cargo transport role replaced expendable rockets such space launch system , spacex s falcon heavy.

scaled composites spaceshipone reusable suborbital spaceplane carried pilots mike melvill , brian binnie on consecutive flights in 2004 win ansari x prize. spaceship company build successor spaceshiptwo. fleet of spaceshiptwos operated virgin galactic planned begin reusable private spaceflight carrying paying passengers in 2014, delayed after crash of vss enterprise.