spacecraft
n.a vehicle designed to travel or operate in space. It can carry people or be controlled by computers from Earth.
n.a vehicle or machine designed for flight or operation beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Refers to both crewed and uncrewed vessels.
“The spacecraft entered the planet's orbit this morning.”
“Engineers spent years testing the spacecraft's heat shield to ensure it could survive the intense friction of atmospheric reentry.”
“Modern spacecraft rely on sophisticated autonomous systems to navigate the vast distances between celestial bodies where real-time communication with ground control is impossible due to signal delay.”
The plural form is identical to the singular ('one spacecraft', 'two spacecraft').
The plural of spacecraft is spacecraft; adding an 's' is a common error.
“Let's shield the astronauts instead of the spacecraft.”
“It's important not to forget that this was a test flight - the first time any humans had flown on both the rocket and the spacecraft.”
Common in science writing
From space + -craft.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.