Government Agency Cargo Spacecraft

An uncrewed spacecraft is a spacecraft that carries no crew and operates under remote control, preprogrammed automation, or a combination of both, a category that includes the expendable resupply vehicles national space agencies have built and flown to service orbiting space stations since the 1970s. Unlike the commercially owned and operated cargo spacecraft that later emerged under contracting programs such as NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, a government agency cargo spacecraft in this class is designed, built and operated directly by a national space agency or its state affiliated industrial partners as part of that agency's own space station support program, carrying food, propellant, scientific equipment and other consumables on expendable, one way flights that typically end in a destructive reentry after the vehicle is loaded with waste.