The US Space Shuttle flew 135 times from 1981 to 2011, supporting Spacelab, Mir, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the ISS. (Columbia's maiden launch, which had a white external tank, shown)

A spacecraft is a vehicle that can carry people and cargo beyond the Earth's atmosphere, through space to other planetary bodies, space stations, or orbits and back home again. Spacecraft which are launched from the surface of a planet are called launch vehicles and usually take-off from launch pads at spaceports.