List_of_space_stations

List of space stations

List of space stations

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The International Space Station in front of the Earth. This image was taken by Space Shuttle Discovery while pulling away during STS-119.
Skylab viewed from the command module of Skylab 2
These paragraphs are an excerpt from Space station.[edit]

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station is an artificial satellite (i.e., a type of orbital spaceflight). Stations must have docking ports to allow other spacecraft to dock to transfer crew and supplies. The purpose of maintaining an orbital outpost varies depending on the program. Space stations have most often been launched for scientific purposes, but military launches have also occurred.

Space stations have harboured so far the only long-duration direct human presence in space. After the first station, Salyut 1 (1971), and the deaths of its Soyuz 11 crew, space stations have been operated consecutively since Skylab (1973), having allowed a progression of long-duration direct human presence in space. Stations have been occupied by consecutive crews since 1987 with the Salyut successor Mir. Uninterrupted occupation of stations has been achieved since the operational transition from the Mir to the ISS, with its first occupation in 2000.

The ISS has hosted the highest number of people in orbit at the same time, reaching 13 for the first time during the eleven day docking of STS-127 in 2009. On May 30, 2023 there were 11 people on the ISS and 6 on China's TSS: with a total of 17 people in orbit, it set the record for most people in orbit as of 2023.[1]

As of 2024, there are two fully operational space stations in low Earth orbit (LEO) – the International Space Station (ISS) and China's Tiangong Space Station (TSS). The ISS has been permanently inhabited since October 2000 with the Expedition 1 crews and the TSS began continuous inhabitation with the Shenzhou 14 crews in June 2022. These stations are used to study the effects of spaceflight on the human body, as well as to provide a location to conduct a greater number and longer length of scientific studies than is possible on other space vehicles. In 2022, the TSS finished its phase 1 construction with the addition of two lab modules: Wentian ("Quest for the Heavens"), launched on 24 July 2022, and Mengtian ("Dreaming of the Heavens") launched on 31 October 2022, joining the ISS as the most recent space station operating in orbit. In July 2022, Russia announced intentions to withdraw from the ISS after 2024 in order to build its own space station.[2] There have been numerous decommissioned space stations, including the USSR's Salyuts and Mir, NASA's Skylab, and China's Tiangong 1 and Tiangong 2.

Past stations

These stations have re-entered the atmosphere and disintegrated.

The Soviet Union ran two programs simultaneously in the 1970s, both of which were called Salyut publicly. The Long Duration Orbital Station (DOS) program was intended for scientific research into spaceflight. The Almaz program was a secret military program that tested space reconnaissance.[3]

  ‡     = Never crewed

More information Name, Program Entity ...

Prototypes

These stations are prototypes; they only exist as testing platforms and were never intended to be crewed. OPS 0855 was part of a cancelled Manned Orbiting Laboratory project by the United States, while the Genesis stations were launched privately. The Genesis stations were "retired" when their avionics systems stopped working after two and a half years, yet they still remain in orbit as derelict spacecraft.

More information Name, Entity ...

Operational stations

As of 2024, two stations are orbiting Earth with life support system in place and fully operational.

More information Name, Entity ...

Planned and proposed

These space stations have been announced by their host entity and are currently in planning, development or production. The launch date listed here may change as more information becomes available.

More information Name, Entity ...

Cancelled projects

The interior of Skylab B, on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

Most of these stations were canceled due to financial difficulties, or merged into other projects.

More information Name, Entity ...

Timeline

Tiangong space stationTiangong 2Tiangong 1Genesis II (space habitat)Genesis IInternational Space StationMirSalyut 7Salyut 6Salyut 5Salyut 4Salyut 3SkylabKosmos 557Salyut 2DOS-2Salyut 1OPS 0855
The image above contains clickable links
The image above contains clickable links
Timeline of space stations, sorted by the nations that launched them. Prototype stations are marked*.
  China
  Soviet Union/Russia
  USA
  multiple nations

See also

Notes

  1. The USSR intended to crew these stations with 2 men, however they re-entered the atmosphere before the cosmonauts were launched.
  2. Launch date of the initial module. Additional modules for this station were launched later.
  3. Correct as of 25 April 2024

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