Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts, cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: uncontrolled entry, such as the entry of astronomical objects, space debris, or bolides; and controlled entry of a spacecraft capable of being navigated or following a predetermined course. Technologies and procedures allowing the controlled atmospheric entry, descent, and landing of spacecraft are collectively termed as EDL.
Bigelow Aerospace was an American space design and manufacturing company which closed its doors in 2020. It was an aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactured and developed expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998, and was based in North Las Vegas, Nevada. It was funded in large part by the profit Bigelow gained through his ownership of the hotel chain, Budget Suites of America.
Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P., commonly referred to as Blue Origin, is an American aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider. The company makes rocket engines for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket and is currently operating its suborbital reusable New Shepard vehicle and its heavy-lift launch vehicle named New Glenn. It is developing the Blue Moon human lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program, and Orbital Reef space station in partnership with other companies.
A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Capsules are distinguished from other spacecraft by the ability to survive reentry and return a payload to the Earth's surface from orbit or sub-orbit, and are distinguished from other types of recoverable spacecraft by their blunt shape, not having wings and often containing little fuel other than what is necessary for a safe return. Capsule-based crewed spacecraft such as Soyuz or Orion are often supported by a service or adapter module, and sometimes augmented with an extra module for extended space operations. Capsules make up the majority of crewed spacecraft designs, although one crewed spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, has flown in orbit.
Space manufacturing or In-space manufacturing is the fabrication, assembly or integration of tangible goods beyond Earth's atmosphere, involving the transformation of raw or recycled materials into components, products, or infrastructure in space, where the manufacturing process is executed either by humans or automated systems by taking advantage of the unique characteristics of space. Synonyms of Space/In-space manufacturing are In-orbit manufacturing, Off-Earth manufacturing, Space-based manufacturing, Orbital manufacturing, In-situ manufacturing, In-space fabrication, In-space production, etc. In-space manufacturing is a part of the broader activity of in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) and is related to in situ resource utilization (ISRU).
A reentry capsule is the portion of a space capsule which returns to Earth following a spaceflight. The shape is determined partly by aerodynamics; a capsule is aerodynamically stable falling blunt end first, which allows only the blunt end to require a heat shield for atmospheric entry. A crewed capsule contains the spacecraft's instrument panel, limited storage space, and seats for crew members. Because a capsule shape has little aerodynamic lift, the final descent is via parachute, either coming to rest on land, at sea, or by active capture by an aircraft. In contrast, the development of spaceplane reentry vehicles attempts to provide a more flexible reentry profile.
Foton is the project name of two series of Russian science satellite and reentry vehicle programs. Although uncrewed, the design was adapted from the crewed Vostok spacecraft capsule. The primary focus of the Foton project is materials science research, but some missions have also carried experiments for other fields of research including biology. The original Foton series included 12 launches from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome from 1985 to 1999.
Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS), or Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), was a proposed design for a crewed spacecraft for low Earth orbit operations such as servicing the International Space Station, but also capable of exploration of the Moon and beyond. It was originally a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Roscosmos, but later became solely an ESA project. This study was conceived as a basic strategic plan to keep a viable European human spaceflight program alive.
The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment is an Indian experimental spacecraft which was launched at 03:53 UTC on January 10, 2007, from Sriharikota by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The launch was conducted using the C7 launch of the PSLV rocket, along with three other satellites. It remained in orbit for 12 days before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and splashing down into the Bay of Bengal at 04:16 UTC on January 22.
The Boeing Starliner is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Developed by Boeing under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), it consists of a reusable crew capsule and an expendable service module.
Nanoracks LLC is an American private in-space services company which builds space hardware and in-space repurposing tools. The company also facilitates experiments and launches of CubeSats to Low Earth Orbit.
Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consists of a reusable space capsule and an expendable trunk module, has two variants: the 4-person Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon, a replacement for the Dragon 1 cargo capsule. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, and the capsule returns to Earth through splashdown.
The following is a timeline of important events in the history of private spaceflight, including important technical as well as legislative and political advances. Though the industry has its origins in the early 1960s, soon after the beginning of the Space Age, private companies did not begin conducting launches into space until the 1980s, and it was not until the 21st century that multiple companies began privately developing and operating launch vehicles and spacecraft in earnest.
SpaceX CRS-21, also known as SpX-21, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station which launched on 6 December 2020. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using a Cargo Dragon 2. This was the first flight for SpaceX under NASA's CRS Phase 2 contract awarded in January 2016. This was also the first Cargo Dragon of the new Dragon 2 variant, as well as the first Cargo Dragon flight that was docked at the same time as a Crew Dragon spacecraft. This mission used Booster B1058.4, becoming the first NASA mission to reuse a booster previously used on a non-NASA mission. This was also first time SpaceX launched a NASA payload on a booster with more than one previous flight.
Starship HLS is a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft that is slated to transfer astronauts from a lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back. It is being designed and built by SpaceX under the Human Landing System contract to NASA as a critical element of NASA's Artemis program to land a crew on the Moon.
Photon is a satellite bus based on Rocket Lab's Electron kick stage. It moves satellites into their appropriate orbits once boosted by rockets such as Electron. It is customizable for uses including LEO payload hosting, lunar flybys, and interplanetary missions.
Orbital Reef is an under development low Earth orbit (LEO) space station being designed by Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada Corporation's Sierra Space for commercial space activities and space tourism uses. Blue Origin has referred to it as a "mixed-use business park". The companies released preliminary concepts for the station on 25 October 2021. The station is being designed to support 10 persons in 830 m3 of volume. As of March 2022, the station was projected to be operational by 2027.
Space Forge is a British aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Cardiff, Wales. Its focus is to develop reusable on-orbit fabrication capabilities to enable the novel production of semiconductors and alloys in microgravity.
NG-20 was the twentieth flight of the Cygnus, an expendable American cargo spacecraft used for International Space Station (ISS) logistics missions that launched on 30 January 2024 and was deorbited on 13 July 2024. It was operated by Northrop Grumman under a Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The spacecraft was an Enhanced Cygnus, named the S.S. Patricia "Patty" Hilliard Robertson in honor of the NASA astronaut who died in a plane crash prior to being assigned to a crew to fly to the ISS.
