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Vostochny Cosmodrome (Космодром Восточный)
Vostochny Cosmodrome (Космодром Восточный), meaning Eastern, is a Russian orbital launch facility near Tsiolkovsky in the Amur region of the far east, with its first launch in 2016.
Vostok (satellite bus)
The Vostok satellite bus was the unmanned platform the Soviet Union derived from its piloted Vostok capsule, serving as the base for Zenit photoreconnaissance satellites from 1961 to 1994.
Vostok (Восток) (spacecraft)
Vostok (Восток), Russian for "East," was the Soviet Union's first crewed spacecraft, carrying Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961 and flying six crewed missions by 1963.
Vostok 1
Vostok 1, or Восток, was the Soviet spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin on the first crewed spaceflight, a single 108-minute orbit of Earth on April 12, 1961.
Vostok programme (Восток)
The Vostok program (Восток) was the Soviet Union's first crewed spaceflight program, flying six missions from 1961 to 1963, including Yuri Gagarin's first human spaceflight in 1961.
Voyager 1
Voyager 1 is a NASA space probe launched in 1977 to fly by Jupiter and Saturn, now in interstellar space more than 15 billion miles from Earth.
Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is a NASA space probe launched in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune, and the second object to enter interstellar space.
Voyager Technologies
Voyager Technologies, formerly Voyager Space Holdings, is an American space and defense technology company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, founded in 2019 and known for leading the Starlab commercial space station.
VSS Enterprise
VSS Enterprise was the first SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic and destroyed in a rocket-powered test flight over the Mojave Desert in 2014.
VSS Enterprise crash
The VSS Enterprise crash was the October 31, 2014 breakup of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane during its fourth powered test flight, killing copilot Michael Alsbury.
VSS Unity
VSS Unity, also known as SpaceShipTwo Unity, is a reusable suborbital rocket plane built for Virgin Galactic that carried the company's first commercial passengers between June 2023 and June 2024.
Vulcain (rocket engine)
Vulcain is a family of European cryogenic rocket engines, burning liquid hydrogen and oxygen, that powers the main stage of the Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 launchers.
Vulcan Centaur
Vulcan Centaur is an expendable heavy-lift rocket built by United Launch Alliance, which first launched from Cape Canaveral in January 2024 to replace the Atlas V.
WAC Corporal
Developed by JPL for the U.S. Army, the WAC Corporal was a liquid-propellant rocket, and its Bumper variant became the first object to enter space in 1949.
Walker constellation
A Walker constellation is a symmetric arrangement of satellites in circular orbits of identical altitude and inclination, spread evenly among equally spaced planes with a set relative phasing between them.
Wallops Flight Facility
Wallops Flight Facility is a NASA rocket launch range and spaceport on Virginia's Eastern Shore, established in 1945 and the oldest active launch range in the continental United States.
Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra, born Walter Marty Schirra Jr., was an American naval aviator and NASA astronaut, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts selected in 1959.
Wanda A. Sigur
Wanda A. Sigur, born Wanda Anne Alexander, is an American aerospace engineer who spent 1979 to 2017 at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, retiring as Vice President of Civil Space.
Water Recovery System (ISS)
The Water Recovery System (WRS) on the International Space Station reclaims drinking water from urine and humidity condensate, installed in 2008 and reaching 98 percent recovery in 2023.
Water rocket
A water rocket is a model rocket, typically built from a plastic soda bottle partly filled with water, launched by compressed air and used in education and competitions.
We choose to go to the Moon
"We choose to go to the Moon", known as the Moon speech, is President John F. Kennedy's 1962 address at Rice University reaffirming the goal of landing Americans on the Moon.
Weak stability boundary
A weak stability boundary is a transition region where Earth, Moon, and Sun gravity nearly balance, letting a spacecraft be captured ballistically with little or no propellant.
Weightlessness
Weightlessness, also called zero gravity or microgravity, is the condition aboard orbiting spacecraft, where gravity keeps the station in orbit and causes fluid shifts, bone loss, and vision changes.
Wenchang Space Launch Site
Wenchang Space Launch Site is a coastal rocket launch complex on Hainan Island, China, opened in 2016 and the departure point for heavy-lift rockets, space station modules, and lunar probes.
Wenchang Space Launch Site (文昌航天发射场)
Wenchang Space Launch Site (文昌航天发射场) is China's coastal spaceport on Hainan Island, opened in 2016 and the primary site for its heavy-lift Long March 5 launches.
Wentian
Wentian (问天, "Quest for the Heavens") is the first laboratory module of China's Tiangong space station, launched on July 24, 2022 and dedicated mainly to space life sciences research.
Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was a German-born rocket engineer who developed the V-2 for Nazi Germany, then led NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and designed the Saturn V rocket.
Westar (satellite)
Westar was a series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Western Union, whose Westar 1, launched in 1974, was the first US domestic communications satellite.
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions is a six-part 2008 Discovery Channel documentary miniseries, narrated by Gary Sinise, tracing NASA's human spaceflight from Mercury to the International Space Station.
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield, or Whipple bumper, is a spacecraft shielding design proposed by Fred Whipple in 1947, using a thin sacrificial bumper to break up hypervelocity debris.