International Space Station (ISS)
A 420-tonne laboratory the size of a football field, orbiting at 28,000 km/h and continuously inhabited since November 2000 by crews from five space agencies.
1980-2009: Shuttle & Station Era
Shenzhou
China’s three-seat spacecraft made the country the third nation to launch humans in 2003 and still ferries every crew to the Tiangong space station today.
Soyuz-2
Modernized descendant of the world’s first ICBM, flying since 2004: 46 m tall, 8,200 kg to orbit, and more than 150 launches carrying crews, cargo and satellites.
Space Shuttle
NASA’s partially reusable space plane flew 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, hauling 27,500 kg to orbit and carrying more than 350 astronauts.