For space trips,the soyuz spacecraft is used.

What Is the Soyuz?

The Soyuz (saw-yooz) is a Russian spacecraft. The Soyuz carries people and supplies to and from the space station. The Soyuz can also bring people back to Earth.

Russia is a big country. Russia helps the United States run the International Space Station. Other countries also help with the space station. But only Russian spacecraft carry people to it right now.

What Can the Soyuz Do?

Russian crew members are called cosmonauts. NASA crew members from the United States are called astronauts. Crew members from Europe, Canada and Japan are also called astronauts.

The Soyuz takes cosmonauts and astronauts to and from the space station. A Soyuz has room for three people to ride in it. The spacecraft also brings food and water to the space station.

The Soyuz is like a lifeboat. At least one Soyuz is always attached to the space station. If there were an emergency on the space station, the crew could use the Soyuz to leave the space station and return to Earth.

Space taxi in future, 

The Soyuz spacecraft will be used as a space taxi for tourists after the new-generation Federation spacecraft becomes operational, CEO of the Energiya space rocket corporation, Vladimir Solntsev, said.

"I think that the Soyuz has the right to continue its life. As long as there exists a space tourism market and this spacecraft enjoys confidence, this all should be used as essential components," the CEO said.

Energiya is also considering the possibility to upgrade the Soyuz for circumlunar missions. "If we manage to do it faster, we will have a chance to perfect important systems on it, that will be further used on the Federation," Solntsev noted.

The Soyuz manned spacecraft have been used for orbital missions since 1967. Since that time, the Soyuz spacecraft has been modernized several times, and today Russia uses the three-seat version of the Soyuz MS to send people to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Federation spacecraft is designed to deliver people and cargo to the moon and the orbital stations in Earth orbit. It is planned to be launched in 2022 from Baikonur.