Spacecraft facts for kids

The NASA Space Shuttle was a famous spacecraft.

A spacecraft is like a special vehicle that travels far beyond Earth. It can carry people or things into space. Spacecraft can go to other planets, space stations, or just orbit around Earth. They can also come back home safely.

When a spacecraft launches from a planet, it's called a launch vehicle. These usually take off from special places called launch pads at a spaceport. Most spacecraft today use rocket engines. These engines push out hot gases to make the spacecraft move in the opposite direction. Other ways to move spacecraft are used too, especially if they don't need to escape strong gravity. For example, ion thrusters are very efficient for travel in space.

Building, launching, and flying spacecraft is very expensive. This is because it takes a lot of energy to leave Earth's gravity. Future plans for spacecraft often try to make them cheaper. This way, more people can explore space. For a long time, only national governments could afford to send spacecraft into space.

Sending People into Space

Sending people into space is the most expensive type of space travel. This is because astronauts need food, water, air, and a safe place to live. They also need ways to control the spacecraft. People who travel into space have special names. In the United States, they are called astronauts. In Russia, they are called cosmonauts. In China, they are called taikonauts.

Here are some of the spacecraft that carry people:

• The American space agency, NASA, used a launch vehicle called the Space Shuttle. Today, American astronauts often travel on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
• The Russian space agency, RFSA, uses a launch vehicle called Soyuz.
• The Ukrainian agency, UASA, uses a launch vehicle called Zenit.
• The Chinese agency, CNSA, uses a launch vehicle called Shenzhou.
• A private company called Virgin Galactic is building a spacecraft called SpaceShipTwo. It is designed to take people on short trips to the edge of space.

What are Satellites?

Some of the most important spacecraft today are artificial satellites. These are smaller spacecraft that do not carry people. Many satellites orbit close to Earth in Low Earth orbit. They can take pictures of Earth or do other jobs.

Other satellites are sent to a special place called geostationary orbit. From here, they can send radio signals from one part of Earth to another. They also watch events on Earth from very high up. Communication satellites help with television and other ways we talk to each other. Other satellites help us predict the weather and do many other important tasks.

Related pages

• Spaceflight
• Space probe

Images for kids

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  The US Space Shuttle flew 135 times from 1981 to 2011. It helped with Spacelab, Mir, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the ISS. (Columbia's first launch is shown here.)

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  More than 100 Soviet and Russian crewed Soyuz spacecraft have flown since 1967. They now support the International Space Station.

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  Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite. It was launched by the Soviet Union.

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  The Apollo 17 command module orbiting the Moon.

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  The Columbia orbiter landing after a mission.

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  The Hubble Space Telescope is a famous space telescope.

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  The Jules Verne ATV approaches the International Space Station in 2008.

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  This diagram shows the path of Mariner 10 as it flew past the planet Venus.

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  An artist's idea of the Phoenix spacecraft landing on Mars.

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  An artist's idea of Cassini–Huygens entering Saturn's orbit.

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  The first test flight of the Delta Clipper-Experimental Advanced (DC-XA). This was a test launch system.

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  NASA's Orion Spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission in December 2019.

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  Reaction control system thrusters on the front of the U.S. Space Shuttle.

See also

In Spanish: Nave espacial para niños