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Spacecraft
hideA spacecraft is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space then returns to the Earth. For an orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters a closed orbit around the planetary body. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as crew or passengers. Spacecraft used for robotic space missions operate either autonomously or telerobotically. Robotic spacecraft that leave the vicinity of the planetary body are space probes. Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around the planetary body are artificial satellites. Starships, which are built for interstellar travel, are so far a theoretical concept only (aside from a handful of interstellar probes such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager, and New Horizons).
Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and space tourism. Spacecraft and space travel are common themes in works of science fiction.
For more information about Spacecraft, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with spacecraft
Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system's "habitable zone," where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. ...
MESSENGER team releases first global map of mercury
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
4 hours ago |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury - a global ...
Magnetic Dance of Titan and Saturn To Be Main Attraction during Flyby
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 14, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When it flies by Saturn's largest moon, Titan, this weekend, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will study the interactions between the magnetic field of Saturn and Titan. The flyby will take place ...
NASA Launches Web Site for Teenagers That Want More Class
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 14, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has launched a new Web site created specifically for teenagers that provides teens access to current NASA spacecraft data for use in school science projects, allows them to conduct real experiments with ...
SwRI's integrated avionics control NASA's WISE spacecraft
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 14, 2009 |
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NASA's latest spacecraft, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), launched Dec. 14, carries an ultra-sensitive infrared instrument that will take nearly 1.5 million images of the sky at four wavelengths and provide ...
