spacecraft

English

Etymology

From space +‎ -craft.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

spacecraft (plural spacecraft or spacecrafts)

2. (astronautics) A vehicle that travels through space.
   • 1990 February 12, Reuters, “Georges de Mestral, 82, Inventor Who Developed Velcro in”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Today, Velcro is used for everything from keeping astronauts from floating off the floor of their spacecrafts to keeping artificial hearts in place, as well as the more mundane tasks of fastening clothing.

   • 2008 June 14, John Schwartz, “No Problems Seen for Shuttle Landing”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     The object appeared after a series of routine prelanding procedures in which the crew tested the steering jets, a test that often shakes loose objects from the spacecraft.

Usage notes

• The standard plural form is spacecraft; spacecrafts is far less common.

Synonyms

• spaceship
• space vehicle
• space vessel

 

Hyponyms

• cycler
• space capsule
• spaceliner
• spaceplane
• space shuttle
• starcraft
• starliner
• starship
• star vessel

 

Coordinate terms

• space station
• spacesuit

 

Derived terms

• spacecraft bus

 

Translations

vehicle that travels through space — see also spaceship

• Basque: espazio-ontzi
• Bulgarian: космически кораб m (kosmičeski korab)
• Danish: rumfartøj (da) n
• French: astronef (fr) m, spationef (fr) m, véhicule spatial (fr) m
• German: Raumfahrzeug (de) n, Weltraumfahrzeug n, Weltraumflugkörper m
• Hebrew: חללית (he) f (khalalít)
• Italian: spazionave f
• Low German:

  German Low German: Ruumfohrtüüg n

• Malayalam: ബഹിരാകാശപേടകം (bahirākāśapēṭakaṁ), ബഹിരാകാശവാഹനം (bahirākāśavāhanaṁ)
• Maori: waka tuarangi, waka ātea
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: romfartøy n

  Nynorsk: romfartøy n

• Polish: statek kosmiczny (pl) m
• Swedish: rymdfarkost (sv) n
• Turkish: uzay aracı (tr)

See also

• space shuttle
• timeship