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List of space stations

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An image of the International Space Station. The silver-colored center module is dark blue, surrounded by four golden solar arrays on each side. The sun is reflecting off of the set to the left. In the background is the outline of the Earth.
The International Space Station in front of the Earth. This image was taken by Space Shuttle Discovery while pulling away during STS-119.
An image of Skylab. The left side of the frame is dominated by a communications array, painted white with a cylindrical satellite dish on top. On they right is a brown-grey cylinder, which is the main station. No solar arrays are visible.
Skylab viewed from the command module of Skylab 2

A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains in orbit and hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring habitation facilities. The purpose of maintaining a space station varies depending on the program. Most often space stations have been research stations, but they have also served military or commercial uses, such as hosting space tourists.

Space stations have been hosting the only continuous presence of humans in space. The first space station was Salyut 1 (1971), hosting the first crew, of the ill-fated Soyuz 11. Consecutively space stations have been operated since Skylab (1973) and occupied since 1987 with the Salyut successor Mir. Uninterrupted occupation has been sustained since the operational transition from the Mir to the International Space Station (ISS), with its first occupation in 2000.

Currently there are two fully operational space stations – the ISS and China's Tiangong Space Station (TSS), which have been occupied since October 2000 with Expedition 1 and since June 2022 with Shenzhou 14. The highest number of people at the same time on one space station has been 13, first achieved with the eleven day docking to the ISS of the 127th Space Shuttle mission in 2009. The record for most people on all space stations at the same time has been 17, first on May 30, 2023, with 11 people on the ISS and 6 on the TSS.[1]

Space stations are most often modular, featuring docking ports, through which they are built and maintained, allowing the joining or movement of modules and the docking of other spacecrafts for the exchange of people, supplies and tools. While space stations generally do not leave their orbit, they do feature thrusters for station keeping.

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.[2]

      = Never crewed

Name Entity Program Crew
size
Launched Reentered Days
in orbit
Days
occu-
pied
Total crew
and visitors
Number of
crewed visits
Number of
robotic visits
Mass
(* = at launch)
Pressurized volume
Salyut 1 Soviet Union USSR DOS[3] 3[4] 19 April 1971[5] 11 October 1971[6] 175 24[7] 6[8] 2[8] 0[8] 18,425 kg (40,620 lb)[5] 100 m3 (3,500 cu ft)[9]
DOS-2 Soviet Union USSR DOS[10] [a] 29 July 1972[5][11] 29 July 1972 failed to reach orbit 18,000 kg (40,000 lb)[12]
Salyut 2 Soviet Union USSR Almaz[11] [a] 3 April 1973[11] 16 April 1973[11] 13[11] 18,500 kg (40,800 lb)[13]
Kosmos 557 Soviet Union USSR DOS[14] [a] 11 May 1973[15] 22 May 1973[16] 11 19,400 kg (42,800 lb)[12]
Skylab United States NASA Skylab[17] 3[18] 14 May 1973[19] 11 July 1979[20] 2249 171[citation needed] 9[21] 3[22] 0[23] 77,088 kg (169,950 lb)[24] 360 m3 (12,700 cu ft)[25]
Salyut 3 Soviet Union USSR Almaz[3] 2[26] 25 May 1974[27] 24 January 1975[28] 213 15[29] 2[29] 1[29] 0 18,900 kg (41,700 lb)*[30] 90 m3 (3,200 cu ft)[14]
Salyut 4 Soviet Union USSR DOS[31] 2[32] 26 December 1974[33] 3 February 1977[33] 770[33] 92[34] 4[34] 2[34][35] 1[34] 18,900 kg (41,700 lb)[14]* 90 m3 (3,200 cu ft)[14]
Salyut 5 Soviet Union USSR Almaz[31] 2[36] 22 June 1976[37] 8 August 1977[38] 412 67[39] 4[39] 3[39] 0[39] 19,000 kg (42,000 lb)[14]* 100 m3 (3,500 cu ft)[14]
Salyut 6 Soviet Union USSR DOS[31][40] 2[41] 29 September 1977[41] 29 July 1982[42] 1764 683[43] 33[43] 16[43] 14[43] 19,000 kg (42,000 lb)[44] 90 m3 (3,200 cu ft)[45]
Salyut 7 Soviet Union USSR 3[46] 19 April 1982[47] 7 February 1991[47] 3216[47] 861[46] 22[46] 10[46] 15[46] 19,000 kg (42,000 lb)[48] 90 m3 (3,200 cu ft)[14]
Mir
3[49] 19 February 1986[50][b] 23 March 2001[20][50] 5511[50] 4594[51] 125[51] 39[52] 68[51] 129,700 kg (285,900 lb)[53] 350 m3 (12,400 cu ft)[54]
Tiangong-1 China CNSA Tiangong 3[55] 29 September 2011[56][57] 2 April 2018[58] 2377 25[59] 6[59][60] 2[59] 1[61] 8,506 kg (18,753 lb)[62] 15 m3 (530 cu ft)[63]
Tiangong-2 China CNSA 2 15 September 2016 19 July 2019 1037 26 2 1 1 8,506 kg (18,753 lb)[62] 15 m3 (530 cu ft)[63]

Note: Prototypes and various parts of Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, U.S. programs are in orbit, but not necessarily operational.

Prototypes

These stations and parts are prototypes; they only exist as testing platforms and will never be crewed. OPS 0855 was part of a cancelled Manned Orbiting Laboratory project by the United States, while the Genesis stations were launched privately.

Name Entity Program Launched Reentered Days in orbit Mass Pressurized volume
OPS 0855 United States USAF MOL 3 November 1966[64] 9 January 1967[64] 67 9,680 kg (21,340 lb) 11.3 m3 (400 cu ft)
Genesis I United States Bigelow Aerospace 12 July 2006[65] (In Orbit) 6705 1,360 kg (3,000 lb)[66] 11.5 m3 (410 cu ft)[67]
Genesis II United States Bigelow Aerospace 28 June 2007[65] (In Orbit) 6354 1,360 kg (3,000 lb)[66] 11.5 m3 (406 cu ft)[67]

Operational stations

As of 2024, only one station is orbiting Earth with life support system in place and fully operational.

Name Entity Crew size Launched Days in orbit[c] Days
occupied
Total crew
and visitors
Crewed
visits
Robotic
visits
Mass Pressurized
volume
International Space Station 7[68] 20 November 1998[68][b] 9496 8785[69] 230[70] 88 [71] 94 [71] 419,725 kg (925,335 lb)[72] 915.6 m3 (32,300 cu ft)[73]

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.

Name Entity Program Crew size Launch date Remarks
Large modular space station China CNSA Tiangong
3
2021–2022[74]
Space Complex Alpha United States Bigelow Aerospace Bigelow Commercial Space Station TBD
Space Complex Bravo TBD
Lunar Gateway United States NASA
ESA
Canada CSA
Japan JAXA
Artemis
4
2024[77] Intended to serve as a science platform and as a staging area for the lunar landings of NASA's Artemis program and follow-on human mission to Mars.
Axiom Station United States Axiom Space
TBD
2020s Axiom and a team of companies won NASA's NextSTEP award to develop a node module to add to the International Space Station by the second half of 2024, which Axiom plans to follow with two additional modules and a power and thermal module that will eventually allow the set of modules to detach from the ISS (about a year before ISS's end of life) and continuously operate as a stand-alone space station.[78][79]
TBD India ISRO Indian Human Spaceflight Programme
3
~2030[80][81][82][83] ISRO chairman K. Sivan announced in 2019 that India will not join the International Space Station and will instead build a 20 tonne space station on its own.[84] It is intended to be built in the next 5–7 years,[85]
Lunar Orbital Station[86]
(LOS)
Russia Roscosmos
TBD
after 2030[87]
Stasiun Luar Angkasa Republik Indonesia (SLARI) Indonesia LAPAN
TBD
2030-2035[88]

Canceled projects

A mockup of the inside of Skylab at the Smithsonian, based on the Skylab B module. In the center, a dummy dressed in a gold jumpsuit sits at a table. Behind him are white cabinets that hold the crews equipment. Off to the right, a porthole shows a view of the Smithsonian.
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. However, Mir-2 was merged to Freedom and formed the basis of the International Space Station.

Name Entity Crew size Remarks
Manned Orbiting Laboratory 1–7 United States NASA 2[89] Canceled due to excessive costs in 1969[90]
Skylab B United States NASA 3[91] Constructed, but launch canceled due to lack of funding.[92] Now a museum piece.
OPS-4 Soviet Union USSR Constructed but never launched, due to cancellation of the Almaz program.
Freedom United States NASA 14–16[93] Merged to form the basis of the International Space Station
Mir-2 Soviet Union USSR
Russia Roscosmos
2[94]
Galaxy United States Bigelow Aerospace Robotic[95] Canceled due to rising costs and ability to ground test key Galaxy subsystems[96]
Almaz commercial United Kingdom Excalibur Almaz 4 or more Lack of funds.
OPSEK Russia Roscosmos More than 2 Canceled in 2017. OPSEK components will instead remain attached to the ISS.

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. ^ a b c The USSR intended to crew these stations with 2 men, however they re-entered the atmosphere before the cosmonauts were launched.
  2. ^ a b Launch date of the initial module. Additional modules for this station were launched later.
  3. ^ Correct as of 19 November 2024

References

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