Spacecraft Pictures

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Spacecraft Pictures features satellites, space stations, mars landers, interplanetary spacecraft, rovers, capsules, space probes and lots more.

Soyuz Landing

Soyuz Landing

ISS Expedition 37 Crew Return Olympic Torch to Earth. Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan on 10 November 2013.

NASA Orbital Space Plane Concepts.

NASA Orbital Space Plane Concepts.

Solar Electric Propulsion System

Artist’s Concept of a Solar Electric Propulsion System.

Using advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) technologies is an essential part of future missions into deep space with larger payloads. The use of robotics and advanced SEP technologies like this concept of an SEP-based spacecraft during a NASA mission to find, rendezvous, capture and relocate an asteroid to a stable point in the lunar vicinity offers more mission flexibility than would be possible if a crewed mission went all the way to the asteroid.

Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Project Orion Picture

Crew Exploration Vehicle….originally part of NASA’s Constellation Program.

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was originally part of NASA’s Constellation Program, which is no longer an active NASA program. However, the design for Orion was carried forward as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion MPCV) as part of NASA’s new plans to explore beyond low Earth orbit and into deep space.

First Spaceplanes Picture

First Spaceplanes. 

The world’s first five spaceplanes flew within the first 50 years of human spaceflight.
1. North American X-15 reached space in 1962/1963
2. NASA Space Shuttle (USA)
3. Buran Space Shuttle (1988)
4. SpaceShipOne in 2004, piloted by world’s first commercial astronaut.
5. Boeing X-37 flew in 2010.

ESA ARD Capsule Picture

ESA ARD Capsule…an Artist’s Impression

ESA’s Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) capsule was launched on 21 October 1998 by an Ariane 5 reached an altitude of 830km (515miles) and splashed down in the Pacific ocean after its 100min flight.  The ARD had a classical Apollo capsule design. Specs: Weight: 2,800kg (6,100lb), Diameter: 2.8m (9.18ft).

Do you think Europe will develop its own human-rated space capsule / vehicle in the next ten years? Today is 1st December 2012.

James Webb Space Telescope Picture

James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope is a planned space telescope successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

GAIA Spacecraft Picture

GAIA Spacecraft.

Gaia is a ESA (European Space Agency) space mission in astrometry. It aims  Its goal is to 3d map more than a thousand million stars. GAIA stands for Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics. It will be launched in August 2013. It is the successor to the Hipparcos mission.

Orion Spacecraft Water Impact Testing Picture

Orion Spacecraft Water Impact Testing.

Orion was dropped vertically into a pool to help fine-tune the way NASA predicts the spacecraft’s landing loads at NASA’s Langley Research Center on Thursday, 23 August, 2012. The Orion spacecraft test version weighs 8,165 kg (18,000 pound).


Did you know?

The first spacecraft in space was Sputnik 1.


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