Cargo spacecraft

A collage of automated cargo spacecraft used in the past or present to resupply the International Space Station

Cargo spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed to support space stations operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. This is different from space probes, whose missions are to conduct scientific investigations.

Automated cargo spacecraft have been used since 1978 and have serviced Salyut 6, Salyut 7, Mir, the International Space Station and Tiangong space laboratory.

Spacecraft

Current spacecraft

• the Russian Progress spacecraft^[1]—developed by Russian Federal Space Agency
• the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle^[2]—developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
• the American Dragon spacecraft^[3]—developed under contract from NASA by SpaceX, a private spaceflight company
• the American Cygnus spacecraft^[4]—developed under contract from NASA by Orbital ATK, a private spaceflight company
• the Chinese Tianzhou spacecraft^[5]—developed by the China National Space Administration

Defunct or retired projects

• the Soviet optionally-manned TKS spacecraft
• the European Automated Transfer Vehicle^[6][7]—developed by the European Space Agency. The last vehicle, Georges Lemaître ATV, completed its mission in February, 2015.

Spacecraft in development

• A variant of the CST-100 crew transportation vehicle has been proposed by Boeing for cargo delivery.^[8]
• In January 2016, NASA announced that Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser had been awarded one of the contracts under the second round of the agency's Commercial Resupply Services contracts. NASA committed to purchasing a minimum of six resupply missions to the ISS.^[9]

Canceled projects

• The American private-sector Kistler K-1 from Rocketplane Kistler saw its contract with NASA terminated in October 2007 when the company failed to meet objectives. The contract was re-awarded to Orbital Sciences Corporation.^[10][11]

See also

• Comparison of space station cargo vehicles
• List of unmanned spaceflights to the International Space Station
• Space transport

References

Automated cargo spacecraft
Current	Cygnus Dragon HTV (Kounotori) Progress Tianzhou
In development	Dream Chaser Cargo System HTV-X TGK PG
Past	Automated Transfer Vehicle TKS
Cancelled	ARCTUS Jupiter Kistler K-1 Parom
Comparison of space station cargo vehicles

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