Editing Reusable launch vehicle (section)

=== Reusable spacecraft ===
{{Main|Reusable spacecraft}}

Launch systems can be combined with reusable spaceplanes or capsules. The [[Space Shuttle orbiter]], [[SpaceShipTwo]], Dawn Mk-II Aurora, and the under-development Indian [[RLV-TD]] are examples for a reusable space vehicle (a [[spaceplane]]) as well as a part of its launch system.

More contemporarily the [[Falcon 9]] launch system has carried reusable vehicles such as the [[Dragon 2]] and [[X-37]].

Contemporary reusable orbital vehicles include the X-37, the [[Dream Chaser]], the Dragon 2, the Indian RLV-TD and the upcoming European [[Space Rider]] (successor to the [[IXV]]).

As with launch vehicles, all pure spacecraft during the early decades of human capacity to achieve spaceflight<!-- late 1950s through early 2010s --> were designed to be single-use items.  This was true both for [[satellite]]s and [[space probes]] intended to be left in space for a long time, as well as any object designed to return to Earth such as [[human spaceflight|human-carrying]] [[space capsule]]s or the sample return canisters of space matter collection missions like [[Stardust (spacecraft)|Stardust]] (1999–2006)<ref name=newscientist20060115>{{cite news |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8586-pinch-of-comet-dust-lands-safely-on-earth/ |title=Pinch of comet dust lands safely on Earth |work=New Scientist |first=Hazel |last=Muir |date=15 January 2006 |access-date=20 January 2018 |archive-date=21 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121184644/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8586-pinch-of-comet-dust-lands-safely-on-earth/ |url-status=live }}</ref> or [[Hayabusa]] (2005–2010).<ref name=indyposted201006>{{Cite web|url=http://indyposted.com/27014/mission-accomplished-for-japans-asteroid-explorer-hayabusa/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616232222/http://indyposted.com/27014/mission-accomplished-for-japans-asteroid-explorer-hayabusa/|url-status=dead|title=Mission Accomplished For Japan's Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa|archivedate=June 16, 2010}}</ref><ref name=sdc20100613>{{cite news |url=http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/hayabusa-asteroid-probe-landing-preview-100613.html |title=Space Probe, Perhaps with a Chunk of Asteroid, Returns to Earth Sunday |work=[[Space.com]] |date=13 June 2010 |access-date=13 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616062115/http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/hayabusa-asteroid-probe-landing-preview-100613.html |archive-date=16 June 2010 }}</ref>  Exceptions to the general rule for space vehicles were the US [[Gemini SC-2]], the [[Soviet Union]] spacecraft [[VA spacecraft|Vozvraschaemyi Apparat (VA)]], the US [[Space Shuttle orbiter]] (mid-1970s-2011, with 135 flights between 1981 and 2011) and the Soviet [[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran]] (1980-1988, with just one uncrewed test flight in 1988).  Both of these spaceships were also an integral part of the launch system (providing launch acceleration) as well as operating as medium-duration spaceships in [[orbital spaceflight|space]].  This began to change in the mid-2010s.

In the 2010s, the [[Commercial Resupply Services|space transport cargo capsule]] from one of the suppliers resupplying the [[International Space Station]] was designed for reuse, and after 2017,<ref name="Dragon_reused">{{cite web|url=https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/06/03/cargo-manifest-for-spacexs-11th-resupply-mission-to-the-space-station/|title=Cargo manifest for SpaceX's 11th resupply mission to the space station|publisher=Spaceflight Now|last=Clark|first=Stephen|access-date=3 June 2017|archive-date=9 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809111921/https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/06/03/cargo-manifest-for-spacexs-11th-resupply-mission-to-the-space-station/|url-status=live}}</ref> NASA began to allow the reuse of the SpaceX [[Dragon 1|Dragon cargo spacecraft]] on these NASA-contracted transport routes. This was the beginning of design and operation of a '''reusable space vehicle'''<!-- bolded per [[WP:MOSBOLD]] as a redirect target -->.

The [[Boeing Starliner]] capsules also reduce their fall speed with parachutes and deploy an airbag shortly before touchdown on the ground, in order to retrieve and reuse the vehicle.

{{as of|2021}}, SpaceX is building and testing the [[SpaceX Starship|Starship]] spaceship to be capable of surviving multiple [[hypersonic]] [[atmospheric reentry|reentries through the atmosphere]] so that they become truly reusable long-duration spaceships; no Starship operational flights have yet occurred.