List of crewed spacecraft

This is a list of human spaceflight types, including space stations, sorted by nation and series in chronological order. Canceled programs are listed at the end.

Comparison

Current human spacecraft

Orbital

Russian

• Soyuz (1967–present) 3 person Earth orbital;^[1] fourth and fifth generations continued operation by Russian Federation. 128 crewed spaceflights (including 1 sub-orbital) as of April 2016. 2 accidental crew losses.

Chinese

• Shenzhou (2003–present) 3 person Earth orbital craft. 5 flights as of April 2016.

Space stations

• International Space Station (2000–present) Unmanned initial assembly 1998-2000
• Tiangong 2 (2016–present)^[2]

Former human spacecraft

Orbital

Soviet/Russian

• Vostok (1961–1963) single-person Earth orbital craft^[3] 6 flights.
  • Voskhod (1964–1965) 2 or 3 person Vostok derivative^[4] 2 flights.

American

• Mercury spacecraft (1961–1963) single-person Earth orbital craft^[5] 6 flights (including 2 sub-orbital).
• Gemini spacecraft (1965–1966) 2 person Earth orbital craft^[6] 10 flights.
• Apollo spacecraft (1968-1975) 15 flights; including 9 lunar missions (with 6 lunar landings).
  • Command/Service Module (1968–1975) 3 person Earth and lunar orbital craft^[7]
  • Lunar Module (1969–1972) 2 person lunar lander^[8]
• Space Shuttle (1981–2011) 2-8 person Earth orbital craft; first orbit-capable spaceplane; first partially reusable orbital spacecraft. 135 flights were made in 5 shuttles, of which 2 were accidentally destroyed and crews lost.

Suborbital

• X-15 (1963) single seat, air-launched spaceplane; two X-15 flights above the Kármán line occurred in 1963^[9]
• SpaceShipOne (2004) single seat, air-launched spaceplane; three flights above the Kármán line occurred in 2004.

Space stations

• Salyut series (1971–1991)^[10] Salyut's 1, 4, 6, and 7.
• Skylab (1973–1974) Three crews. De-orbited 1979.
• Almaz series (1973–1977) Military reconnaissance stations. Badged as Salyut 2, 3 and 5 as disinformation.
• Mir (1986–2000) 28 crews. De-orbited 2001.
• Tiangong 1 (2011–2012) 2 crews. Still in orbit but will not receive any further crews.

In development

Orbital

American

• SpaceX's Dragon V2 - 7 person Earth orbital craft - 1st crewed flight planned for May 2018.^[11]
• Boeing's CST-100 Starliner - 7 person Earth orbital craft - 1st crewed flight planned for March 2018^[12]
• NASA's Orion - 4 person beyond Earth orbit craft ^[13] - 1st crewed flight planned for 2021.^[14]
• Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser - 7 person Earth orbital space plane^[15]
• Blue Origin's orbital spacecraft^[15]
• SpaceX's Interplanetary Spaceship - 100+ person beyond Earth orbit craft (crew size expected to be smaller on early flights).^[16]

Russian

• Federatsiya - 4 person Lunar capable craft - 1st crewed flight planned for 2024^[17]

Indian

• ISRO Orbital Vehicle^[18]

Iranian

• Iranian manned spaceship project^[19]

British

• Skylon unpiloted reusable space plane with possible Passenger Module (engine in development)^[20]

Suborbital

American

• Blue Origin's New Shepard - crewed flight planned for 2017.^[21]
• Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo^[22]

Chinese

• The Chinese winged rocket - the plane may one day fly up passengers to the edge of space. Two versions: one should be able to fly five people to an altitude of 100 kilometres; other - could fly 20 people to 130 kilometres. Payload launches in 2020.^[23]

Japan

• PD Aerospace, Ltd. sub-orbital rocket plane^[24]

Russian

• RSSC - reusable sub-orbital space complex MCKK, private company "KosmoKurs". 1st flight planned for 2020^[25][26]

Space Stations

• Bigelow Commercial Space Station or Space Complex Alpha, proposed private space habitat scheduled for 2020 initial deployment
• OPSEK, proposed Russian successor to the International Space Station
• Tiangong-3, a larger Chinese space station tentatively scheduled for 2022

Proposed

• Advanced Re-Entry Vehicle European manned spaceship^[27]
• Golden Spike Company's Flyer (lunar)
• Mars One's Transit Living Module and Human Lander (Martian)
• Masten Space Systems' O Series (orbital)
• Masten Space Systems' XL Series (orbital/lunar)
• SpaceShipThree (suborbital)

Cancelled

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

• Space Transportation System (1976 - 2011, all elements canceled, except the Space Shuttle, which took the name)
• VentureStar, Lockheed Martin X-33 demonstrator (canceled 2001) single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) shuttle
• Altair Lunar Surface Access Module for Constellation program

Joint NASA / United States Air Force

• Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar (canceled 1963) winged orbital space plane, launched by Titan 3
• Manned Orbiting Laboratory + Gemini-B spacecraft (canceled 1969)
• Rockwell X-30 or National AeroSpace Plane (canceled 1993) to be used as a hypersonic transport plane or as a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) shuttle

Joint NASA / European Space Agency (ESA)

• X-38 (canceled 2002) lifting body crew-rescue vehicle for ISS

Soviet space program

• Soyuz 7K-VI Zvezda^[28] (1962-1968; military researching ship)
• LK-1 (1964-1967) Soviet manned lunar flyby program of a missile engineer Vladimir Chelomey^[29]
• LK-700 (1964-1967) Soviet manned lunar landing program of a missile engineer Vladimir Chelomey
• Soyuz 7K-L1 (1967–1970) part of the abandoned Soviet manned lunar flyby program^[30]
• Soyuz L3 spacecraft (late 1960s to early 1970s); part of the abandoned Soviet manned lunar landing program (The LOK would carry two cosmonauts into orbit around the Moon, acting as "mother" spacecraft for the LK Lander, which would land one member of the crew to the surface)^[31]
  • Soyuz 7K-L3 (LOK) 2 person lunar orbital craft
  • LK single-pilot lunar lander
• Spiral-EPOS (also known as EPOS – Russian acronym for Experimental Passenger Orbital Aircraft – canceled 1976)^[32]
• Aerospace plane (VKS - Vozdushno-kosmicheskij samoljot) Myasishchev M-19 or Myasishchev-Gurko MG-19 (1974-80th) Soviet multi-purpose, spacecraft project^[33][34]
• Shuttle Buran (1976-1988) canceled after one unmanned orbital flight^[35]
• Strelec (Archer; 1979 - 1991) universal military 3 person spaceship - tank, which was created within the project of cosmical complex Sapfir (Sapphire, project canceled)^[36]
• Zarya (project canceled 1989)
• MAKS (project canceled 1991)

Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA)

• Kliper (government funding canceled 2006)

European Space Agency (ESA)

• Hermes (project cancelled 1992)
• Hopper (project cancelled)
• Advanced Re-entry Vehicle (ARV) 4 person spacecraft (orbital)^[37]
• Crew Space Transportation System (orbital); project evolved into Russia's Federation spacecraft

Space stations

• Columbus-MTFF (project cancelled 1991)

China National Space Administration (CNSA)

• Shuguang (project cancelled 1972)
• FSW (unmanned flights only; manned program cancelled)

Japan

National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)

• HOPE-X (project cancelled 2003)
• Fuji (project not adopted)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

• HTV-R (orbital)

Non-official

• Kankoh-maru (proposed 1993–1995)

United Kingdom

• HOTOL (funding withdrawn 1986)
• HOTOL 2 (rejected 1991)

USA (private)

• XCOR Lynx spaceplane (started 2008, cancelled 2016)

References

Sources

• Gatland, Kenneth (1976). Manned Spacecraft (2nd ed.). New York City: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 0-02-542820-9.