spacecraft
Americannoun
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spacecraft
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spacecraft
Explanation
A spacecraft is a vehicle designed to travel beyond Earth's atmosphere. In 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module was the first crewed spacecraft to land on the Moon. Rockets, space shuttles, satellites, and the International Space Station are all examples of spacecraft. Any machine, device, or vehicle that's designed to travel in outer space falls into this category, whether or not it carries humans. Spacecraft is a more scientific term than spaceship — but both words were originally used in 19th- and 20th-century science fiction.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After thousands of passes over the Moon, researchers have assembled maps precise enough to identify new craters, landslides, spacecraft landers, seismic faults, and possible signs of lava tubes.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
One possible example is Triton, Neptune's largest moon, where NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft observed geysers erupting from the surface.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
SpaceX wants Starship to deploy 26 Starlink V3 spacecraft on the flight, each of which will add 1 terabits per second of capacity to the existing Starlink satellite-internet constellation.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Elon Musk's Space X company operates a satellite ground station on the island while satellite giants including SES, Inmarsat, Avanti and Telesat have all registered spacecraft through the Isle of Man's filing system.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
The first female to pilot a spacecraft was Eileen Collins in 1995.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
