To make the most efficient use of its carrier vehicle’s capacity, a space station is launched vacant, and its crew members—and sometimes additional equipment—follow in separate vehicles. Depending on its configuration, a space station can serve as a base for a variety of activities.

Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. A space station’s operation, therefore, requires a transportation system to ferry crews and hardware and to replenish the propellant, air, water, food, and such other items as are consumed during routine operations. It's four times larger than the Russian space station MIR and five times larger than the U.S. station Skylab. Omissions? Since 1971, 11 space stations launched into a low orbit around Earth have been occupied for varying lengths of time. https://www.britannica.com/technology/space-station, space station - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), space station - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, first space station, equipped for scientific studies; abandoned after its first crew died returning to Earth, military reconnaissance platform; suffered explosion after achieving orbit and was never occupied, scientific station; crippled after achieving orbit and was never occupied, first U.S. space station; successfully supported solar studies and biomedical experiments on the effects of weightlessness, scientific station; operated until its systems were exhausted, first second-generation Salyut, operated as highly successful scientific station; resident crews hosted a series of international visitors, problem-plagued follow-up to Salyut 6 that had to be repeatedly rescued, occupied March 14, 1986, to June 15, 2000 (continuously from September 7, 1989, to August 28, 1999), first space station assembled in orbit using individually launched, specialized modules; successfully applied lessons learned from Salyut program, astrophysics observatory with X-ray telescopes, supplementary life-support systems and large air lock, microgravity materials-processing laboratory, module with NASA apparatus and Earth-sciences sensors, international consortium, primarily U.S. and Russia, permanently occupied since November 2, 2000, modular, expandable station intended to serve world's space agencies for first quarter of 21st century, U.S.-funded, Russian-built module supplying initial solar power and attitude-control system, Russian-built habitat module and control centre, U.S.-built air lock, allowing station-based space walks for U.S. and Russian astronauts, Russian-built docking compartment, providing Soyuz docking port and additional air lock for Russian space walks, Module built by Bigelow Aerospace to test expandable module technology. In Braun’s day, the development of a space station was thought to be a preliminary stepping-stone to the Moon and planets, but, when Cold War politics prompted Pres. Small space stations are launched fully assembled, but larger stations are sent up in modules and assembled in orbit. Unlike previous stations, the Soviet space station Mir had a modular design; a core unit was launched, and additional modules, generally with a specific role, were later added to that. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1969, with development running late for the large spacecraft that was to ferry crews and supplies to the station, Soviet officials decided to accelerate the program by employing the Soyuz spacecraft that had been developed during the failed attempt to win the Moon race. Between 1952 and 1954, in a series of articles in the popular magazine Collier’s, the German-American rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun presented his vision of a space station as a massive wheel-shaped structure that would rotate to generate “artificial gravity” from centrifugal force, sparing its crew of 1,000 scientists and engineers the drawbacks of weightlessness.

Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? How to subscribe: Currently, a 1-year subscription to more than 100 articles within the Insider Content section can be obtained via PayPal or a credit card payment of $50. John F. Kennedy in 1961 to commit the United States to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out, there was no time to pursue this logical route. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. a nuclear lunar power station. Even as 2001 was restating Braun’s ambitious vision to the public, it already was obvious to space engineers that the first real space stations would have to be much simpler than their fictional counterparts. Space station, an artificial structure placed in orbit and having the pressurized enclosure, power, supplies, and environmental systems necessary to support human habitation for extended periods. The International Space Station photographed against the Rio Negro, Argentina, from the shuttle orbiter. One of the station’s primary tasks would be to assemble vehicles for expeditions to the Moon.

They also employ geostationary relay satellites for continuous communication with mission controllers on the ground and satellite-based positioning systems for navigation.

INSIDER CONTENT. Nevertheless, even as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plunged deeply into the Apollo program, it studied several space station strategies as part of an Apollo Applications Program, which would exploit vehicles built for the Moon race for more general orbital activities. Rather, a single spacecraft would be obliged to ride an expendable rocket into orbit and fly directly to its goal. Since 1971, 11 space stations launched into a low orbit around Earth have been occupied for varying lengths of time. One NASA plan was to have an Apollo spacecraft dock with a spent rocket stage, whereupon its crew would pressurize the rocket’s empty hydrogen-propellant tank with air and install scientific equipment that would turn it into a laboratory for several weeks of occupancy. The U.S. Air Force had its own plan to operate a Manned Orbiting Laboratory fitted with an advanced camera to facilitate military reconnaissance activities.

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INSIDER CONTENT. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). After completion of a transaction, we will send you personalized access information: NASA considers long and short commercial missions. The docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20-tonne (22-short-ton) space station modules based on the TKS spacecraft. In chronological order they are Salyut 1, Skylab, Salyuts 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, Mir, the International Space Station, and Tiangong 1 and 2 (see table). Updates? This method allows for greater flexibility in operation, as well as removing the need for a single immensely powerful launch vehicle. Like the U.S. military, the Soviet Union had a plan to put a series of reconnaissance stations in orbit by the 1970s. It would be serviced by a fleet of winged spaceships employing nuclear engines. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. Get the latest news, images, videos and more from humanity's home in orbit -- the International Space Station. Which type of telescope is used for examining the moon and other planets of the solar system?

Announcing our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! These include observations of the Sun and other astronomical objects, study of Earth’s resources and environment, military reconnaissance, and long-term investigations of the behaviour of materials and biological systems—including human physiology and biochemistry—in a state of weightlessness, or microgravity. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. How to … On a regular schedule, a fleet of commercial space planes flew people up to the station, from which they could catch a ferry to the Moon. In 1969, however, just as NASA attained Kennedy’s goal of a crewed lunar landing, Pres. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. That concept remained a popular portrait of humankind’s future in space as late as 1968, when the American motion-picture director Stanley Kubrick’s classic science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted a spinning double-wheel station under construction above Earth. Space stations use large panels of solar cells and banks of storage batteries as their source of electrical power.