spacecraft

noun

space·​craft ˈspās-ˌkraft 

: a vehicle or device designed for travel or operation outside the earth's atmosphere

Examples of spacecraft in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Instead of setting Orion up for an insertion into lunar orbit, the free-return trajectory will loop the spacecraft once around the moon on a figure-eight flight path back to Earth, ensuring the crew's return regardless of Orion's propulsion status, should unexpected issues crop up during flight. —Josh Dinner, Space.com, 27 Jan. 2026

Then, as the world watched, the mammoth spacecraft erupted in a huge fireball and shot out of control. —Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Jan. 2026

The wet dress rehearsal will see NASA technicians load up the uncrewed spacecraft’s rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel—specifically, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen—before running through a countdown to launch. —Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 27 Jan. 2026

Founded in the gold rush era, the company built glass for Edison's light bulbs in the late 1870s, and over the following decades moved into Pyrex cookware, car filters, spacecraft windows, TV screens and vials for Covid vaccines. —Katie Tarasov, CNBC, 27 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1929, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for spacecraft

• allograft
• autograft
• autographed
• countershaft
• handicraft
• homograft
• hovercraft
• lithographed
• overdraft
• photographed
• rotorcraft
• telegraphed

Kids Definition

spacecraft

noun

space·​craft ˈspā-ˌskraft 

plural spacecraft

: a vehicle for travel beyond the earth's atmosphere