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Space shuttles, ships and other spacecraft

NASA had hopes that its Orion spacecraft would be the space shuttle's successor, but the Constellation program, of which Orion was a part, was cancelled in 2010.

NASA

NASA had hopes that its Orion spacecraft would be the space shuttle's successor, but the Constellation program, of which Orion was a part, was cancelled in 2010.

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  • The Apollo spacecraft was divided into several parts, from top to bottom: the Launch Escape System, the Command Module, the Service Module and the Lunar Module inside the Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter.
  • The Russian Soyuz family of spacecraft, originally designed in the 1960s, remains in service today and ferries astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the International Space Station. Soyuz spacecraft are also docked at the station as escape vessels, in case of emergency.
  • The space shuttle orbiter first launched in 1981 and has furthered human understanding of not just space, but Earth as well. The shuttle orbiter fleet will be retired in 2011.
  • The European Space Agency's unmanned Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) help supply propellant, water, air and more to the International Space Station.
  • NASA had hopes that its Orion spacecraft would be the space shuttle's successor, but the Constellation program, of which Orion was a part, was cancelled in 2010.
  • NASA had planned to use the Altair Lunar Lander as the lander spacecraft for its Constellation program, which was cancelled in 2010.
  • XCOR Aerospace entered the commercial reusable launch vehicle (RLV) market with its Lynx Suborbital Spacecraft, a two-seated space transport designed to carry humans and payloads on a half-hour surborbital flight.
  • The VSS Enterprise is a commercial spacecraft built for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
  • The VMS (Virgin Mothership) Eve, designed for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, is a launch platform for SpaceShipTwo-based spacecraft.

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