The Russians have had a number of different programs - like we have - but they have a better philosophy on how they use their funds. We started and stopped Mercury, then started and stopped Gemini, then the same with Apollo (although we did get Skylab and Soyuz-Apollo Test Project from it), and recently we just retired the shuttle. In between our programs, we have no means with which to get to space; The Russians have been through their Salyut, Mir, and now the ISS programs, but they've always relied on Soyuz as the means to get there. (Even their lunar program with the N1 had planned to use an adapted Soyuz stack to get to the moon.)
NASA, on the other hand, has always based the capsule we use on the mission - when a new mission comes along, it's time for new hardware... which is both expensive and time consuming to develop.
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Angela D say: define "best".
they are highly reliable, but cramped inside.
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hoarseman say: Niet.
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Starrysky say: Have to consider the ejection pods on the Federation of Planets deep space craft like Enterprise, Voyager, others.
No data on the ones the Chinese have made. But at least they haven't killed any passengers yet, compared to the American and Russian capsules.
Americans--3.
Russians--at least 4 that we know of so far.
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Norman say: Yes,apart from the American ones.
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Davros say: So far.
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Gary B say: No.
The Andrellian 19-35 could handle 24 Andrellians (or 15 humans) AND a Southberg crew of 6 for a Two Earth-Year trip (although the stored gases would have to be changed to support the alien human atmosphere, but this is easily made up for due to the lack of need to carry the food and water and live cavys the Andrellians use for food, and the human food can be freeze dried).
The Andrellian 19-35 has been more than fulfilling its duties for over 4500 years.
I recently found out that the Whahahkman BBaC can support up to 48 military troops for short "hops" of less than 2 earth days, AND provide continuous sexual enjoyment for the length of the trip, but since the ship is only 25 millimeters long, it is useless to humans.
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