Crewed space capsules are the ballistic reentry vehicles that have carried the overwhelming majority of human spaceflight missions since Vostok 1 opened crewed spaceflight in 1961. Distinguished from spaceplanes by their blunt, wingless shape built to survive atmospheric reentry rather than glide through it, capsule designs range from the single-seat Mercury and Vostok craft of the early 1960s through the multi-seat Apollo, Soyuz, Shenzhou and Gaganyaan vehicles, to the modern commercial Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner that now ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Because a capsule carries little fuel beyond what a safe return needs, later designs kept this shape for both government and, more recently, private crewed programs across the United States, Russia, China and India.
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Crewed Space Capsules
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1. Vostok 1 (Wikipedia)
Vostok 1 article, sentence naming 1961
The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 12 April 1961, with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to reach orbital velocity around the Earth and to complete a full orbit around the Earth.
- Has Member: Vostok 1, Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток, lit. 'East' or 'Orient') was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was la
View the SourceWikipedia: Space Capsule (Spacecraft Type)
Wikipedia: Soyuz (spacecraft)
Has Member: Soyuz, Soyuz (Russian: Союз, IPA: [sɐˈjus], lit. 'Union') is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet spacView the Source CST-100 Starliner (Wikipedia)
Has Member: CST-100 Starliner, The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Under development by BoeingView the Source Wikipedia: Orion (spacecraft)
Has Member: Orion, The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used by NASA for the Artemis lunar exploration program. It consists of a crew module (CM), a space capsuView the Source Apollo Command/Service Module (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Apollo Command/Service Module, The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the Moon beView the Source Wikipedia - SpaceX Dragon
Has Member: Dragon, Dragon is a family of spacecraft developed and produced by American public space transportation company SpaceX.
The first variant, later named Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the InternaView the Source Wikipedia - Project Mercury
Has Member: Mercury spacecraft, Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbitView the Source Wikipedia - Project Gemini
Has Member: Gemini spacecraft, Project Gemini (IPA: ) was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. It was conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo prograView the Source Wikipedia - Shenzhou (spacecraft)
Has Member: Shenzhou, Shenzhou (Chinese: 神舟; pinyin: Shénzhōu, shen-JOH; see § Etymology) is a Chinese spacecraft developed for the China Manned Space Program. Its design was based on Russia's Soyuz, but largerView the Source Voskhod (spacecraft) - Wikipedia
Has Member: Voskhod, The Voskhod (Russian: Восход, lit. 'Sunrise') was a spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space program for human spaceflight as part of the Voskhod programme. It was a development of and aView the Source Wikipedia: Orel (spacecraft)
Has Member: Orel (spacecraft), Orel (Russian: Орёл, lit. 'Eagle') or Oryol, formerly Federation (Russian: Федерация, romanized: Federatsiya), and PPTS (Russian: Перспективная Пилотируемая Транспортная Система, romanized:View the Source Wikipedia: Command module Columbia
Has Member: Command Module Columbia, Command module Columbia (CM-107) is the spacecraft that served as the command module during Apollo 11, which was the first mission to land humans on the Moon. Columbia is the only spacecraftView the Source Wikipedia: Crew Exploration Vehicle
Has Member: Crew Exploration Vehicle, The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was a component of the U.S. NASA Vision for Space Exploration plan. A competition was held to design a spacecraft that could carry humans to the destinatioView the Source Wikipedia: Big Gemini
Has Member: Big Gemini, Big Gemini (or "Big G") was proposed to NASA by McDonnell Douglas in August 1969 as an advanced version of the Gemini spacecraft system (albeit actually having little in common). It was inteView the Source Wikipedia: Dragon 2
Has Member: Crew Dragon, Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and privaView the Source Wikipedia: Crew Return Vehicle
Has Member: Crew Return Vehicle, The Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), sometimes referred to as the Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV), was a proposed dedicated lifeboat or escape module for the International Space Station (ISS).View the Source Wikipedia: CSTS
Has Member: CSTS, Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS), originally Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), was a proposed design for a crewed spacecraft for low Earth orbit operations such as servicingView the Source Wikipedia: MOOSE
Has Member: MOOSE (spacecraft), MOOSE, originally an acronym for Man Out Of Space Easiest but later changed to the more professional-sounding Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment, was a proposed emergency "bail-out"View the Source Wikipedia: Apollo command and service module
Has Member: Apollo command and service module, The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the Moon beView the Source Wikipedia: Boeing Starliner
Has Member: Boeing Starliner, The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Under development by BoeingView the Source Wikipedia: Gaganyaan
Has Member: Gaganyaan, Gaganyaan (Sanskrit: [ɡəɡənəjɑːnə],, from Sanskrit: gagana, "celestial" and yāna, "craft, vehicle") is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the IndiView the Source Wikipedia: Apollo (spacecraft)
Has Member: Apollo (spacecraft), The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safelView the Source Wikipedia: Blue Gemini
Has Member: Blue Gemini, Blue Gemini was a United States Air Force (USAF) project first proposed in August 1962 for a series of seven flights of Gemini spacecraft to enable the Air Force to gain crewed spaceflight eView the Source Wikipedia: Fuji (spacecraft)
Has Member: Fuji (spacecraft), Fuji (ふじ) was a crewed space capsule proposed by Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) Advanced mission Research center in December 2001. The Fuji design was ultimately not adoptView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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