Space station

A space station is an artificial satellite in space that people can live at. All past and current space stations have been in low Earth orbit. Space stations can dock with other spacecraft. This allows transferring cargo and people. At present the International Space Station is the only space station in orbit. The first space station was Salyut 1. Prior stations were the seven Salyut stations, Skylab, Mir and the two Tiangong stations. The Chinese Space Station is planned for the future.

Space stations are used to learn about how being in space for a long time affects the human body. They also are a place for science experiments and research. Space stations have been designed for more than one crew. Each crew member may stay aboard the station for weeks or months, and then is replaced by others. Some have spent more than one year at a time on a space station. This includes Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov, Sergei Avdeyev and Valeriy Polyakov aboard Mir.

 List of successful stations 
The below list is of stations that made it to orbit and had at least one crew visit them. There have also been a few stations that have failed or were for testing. Those are not included on this list.

NameCountryLaunchedBurned upin atmosphereDays inorbitDayswith peopleon boardCrewand visitors(total)VisitingcrewedspacecraftVisitinguncrewedspacecraftMasskg  Salyut 1  Soviet Union19 April 197111 October 19712332-18,500  Skylab  United States14 May 197311 July 1979 17193018,500  Salyut 3  Soviet Union25 June 197424 January 19751522-18,500  Salyut 4  Soviet Union26 December 19743 February 19779242118,500  Salyut 5  Soviet Union22 June 19768 August 1977 6743-19,000  Salyut 6  Soviet Union29 September 197729 July 1982 68333181519,824  Salyut 7  Soviet Union19 April 19827 February 1991 81626111518,900  Mir  Soviet Union, Russia19 February 198623 March 2001 45941253968129,700  International Space Station  United States, Russia, Members of the ESA, Canada, Japan20 November 1998Still in orbit 240Subject to increase while station is in orbit.103As of 28 April 2021. Subject to increase while station is in orbit.136925,335  Tiangong-1  China29 September 20112 April 2018 266218,506  Tiangong-2  China15 September 201619 July 2019 262118,506

Research and development of parts for space stations
In 2024, international media showed a film clip of a NASA test of putting too much pressure inside a LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) habitat, a room designed for a future space station.

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 References