Top ten spacecraft

2. Space Shuttle orbiter
Every wannabe astronaut in the world looks at the Shuttle as their ticket to space. Sure, it's had its fair share of problems, but it's still an amazing spacecraft.

There are people who argue that the orbiter is a gigantic waste of time and money. And to some extent they are right, because re-usable spacecraft aren't particularly practical and don't offer massive advantages over single use craft.

But that said, it's still fair to say the Shuttle is a marvel of engineering, and has almost certainly done a huge amount to inspire children worldwide to imagine flying to space.

The Shuttle will make its last scheduled flight in 2010, to the International Space Station. This mission isn't guaranteed, though, so the end might come earlier for the Shuttle. But in its life, the five shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour -- have spent more than 1,100 days in flight over 120 missions. Collectively they have orbited the planet nearly 18,000 times, deployed 66 satellites and docked with ISS and Mir 32 times. By the time it is retired, the Shuttle is expected to have cost the US government a total of $174bn.

As useful as the Shuttle has been, it hasn't been without human cost. In total, 14 astronauts have been killed in Space Shuttle disasters, in two separate accidents -- the launch of the Challenger in 1986 and the re-entry of the Columbia in 2003.

Photo credit: NASA