NASDA

OrienSpace

Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

Launcher

VAST

iSpace

Space Force

Lockheed Martin

Virgin Galactic

Polish Space Agency

CNES

Project Juno

ISRO

Belarus Space Agency

Intuitive Machines

Polaris

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Varda Space Industries

CAS Space

Boeing

Scaled Composites

Firefly Aerospace

SSAU

Virgin Orbit

Axiom Space

MBRSC

Energia

CASC

KazCosmos

Sierra Space

CNSA

National Reconnaissance Office - NRO

Arianespace

CCCP

Space Adventures, Inc.

ABL Space Systems

OneWeb

Rocket Lab

Roscosmos

Isar Aerospace

ANGKASA

Starsem

Astra

SpaceX

ExPace

Blue Origin

NASA

Northrop Grumman

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)

Kuiper Technology

Space One

PLD Space

Relativity Space

Inversion Space

JAXA

Gilmour Space

Astrobotic Technology

LandSpace

Galactic Energy 

The X-15 was a supersonic rocket aircraft for the U.S. Air Force and NASA. Thirteen of its flights climbed higher than 80 km, the U.S. boundary to space. Two flights rose above 100 km, the internationally recognized border to space.

X-15

Soyuz is a human-carrying capsule built and operated by Russia, capable of transporting up to three people to the Space Station at a time. It has been upgraded numerous times since its first use in the 1960s for the Soviet lunar program and was the only crewed vehicle for the Station from 2011 to 2020.

Soyuz

SpaceShipTwo is designed for suborbital tourism flights to space. Owned by Virgin Orbit, the SpaceShipTwo has so far climbed above the U.S. border to space of 80 km but not over the 100 km internationally-recognized point where space begins.

SpaceShipTwo

Wentian, “quest for the heavens,” was the first of two science modules for Tiangong. It autonomously docked to Tianhe’s forward port before a robotic arm moved it to its permanent location on one of Tianhe’s side ports. Wentian houses back control systems, a small robotic arm for moving external science experiments around the station. It also has the Tiangong station’s main airlock.

Wentian Module

JAXA HTV

Prichal also known as Uzlovoy Module or UM, Russia’s long-planned docking node for the International Space Station (ISS).

Prichal Progress M-UM

Vostok was the first spacecraft capable of carrying humans into space. Officially known as Vostok 3KA, the single-person vehicle did not have landing equipment and all Soviets who flew on it had to eject at 7 km and parachute to the ground. The program completed six human flights and proved that people could live in space for several days.

Vostok

Voskhod was the second Soviet human space program. It used a modified Vostok spacecraft to allow two or three people to fly at the same time. However, the design proved largely unusable, and the program was canceled after just five months and two missions.

Voskhod

Shenzhou is a Soyuz-derived spacecraft built and flown by China. Larger than its Russian counterpart, Shenzhou is made up of three parts. Like Soyuz, only the reentry module with the crew survives reentry and landing.

Shenzhou

Named after the first American to reach space, Alan Shepard, the New Shepard rocket is powered by a single Blue Origin-developed engine for both launch and landing.

New Shepard

The main Apollo spacecraft was a Command and Service Module designed to take three astronauts to and from the Moon’s orbit and provide access to the lunar lander during missions. After the Moon program ended, Apollo spacecraft flew three crews to the Skylab space station and performed the historic joint U.S.-Soviet mission in 1975.

Apollo

The Mercury capsule was the United States' first human spacecraft. Built without onboard computers, all flight calculations had to be determined on the ground and radioed up to each crew member. The spacecraft performed two suborbital and four orbital human missions and proved that people could live in space for multiple days.

Mercury

Crew Dragon is the first privately built and operated orbital spacecraft capable of flying humans. As a reusable SpaceX capsule, it transports crew members to and from the International Space Station. It will also carry paying customers to the Station and low Earth orbit. While it typically accommodates a crew of four, this number can vary depending on the mission.

Crew Dragon

Progress is Russia’s cargo vehicle for the Space Station. It is based on the same design as Soyuz and is sometimes used to test new communication and navigation systems before they are implemented on crewed Soyuz flights.

Progress

Tianzhou (‘Heavenly Ship’) is a Chinese automated cargo spacecraft developed to resupply China’s space station.

Tianzhou

SpaceShipOne flew the first commercial spaceflight in 2004. A suborbital rocket-powered aircraft, SpaceShipOne completed three flights that crossed the 100 km boundary to space.

SpaceShipOne

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

Gemini was a two-person spacecraft designed to prove technologies and procedures for the Apollo lunar landings. Crews proved rendezvous and docking as well as transfer from one ship to another via spacewalk were possible. Gemini demonstrated that humans could live and work in space for the length of time needed for a lunar flight.

Gemini

Long March 3B

Mengtian is the last of the three modules that make up China’s Tiangong space station. It is very similar to Wentian, minus the airlock. It is one of the two main science modules for Tiangong.

Mengtian Module

Cygnus is an uncrewed supply ship from Northrop Grumman. It serves as both a cargo craft for science equipment and crew supplies, and as an independent science module where experiments can be conducted. After departing the Station, Cygnus deploys small satellites and performs other scientific missions.

Cygnus

Starliner is Boeing’s orbital human carrier, designed and built for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. It will transport at least four crew members to and from the Station and will also be available for missions with paying customers.

Starliner

Tianhe, “harmony of the heavens,” was the first module of China’s new space station, Tiangong. It was launched on April 29th, 2021 and provides life support, crew living space, and can guide the station through different orbital maneuvers.  It has six docking ports, two for science modules Wentian and Mengtian, one for an airlock, and three for cargo and crew vehicles.

Tianhe Module

Cargo Dragon is a freight version of the Crew Dragon design. A reusable SpaceX capsule, it can carry thousands of kilograms of science and supplies to and from the Station. It is the only craft that can currently bring large amounts of scientific experiments back to Earth.

Get the Supercluster App

Donate to Support Supercluster

Supercluster on Patreon

Fact of the Day

Want more space stories?

GET THE SUPERCLUSTER APP

THE SUPERCLUSTER PODCAST

Donate to support

The Supercluster App

Featuring our global Launch Tracker, interactive Astronaut Database, and Stations Dashboard.

Stay on top of everything leaving Earth; get mission info, countdowns, livestreams, and customized notifications that alert you when a rocket is launching or when a space station is in the skies overhead.

Download