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A space station is an artificial structure designed for human
Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
s to live in outer space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
. So far only low earth orbit
Low Earth orbit

A Low Earth Orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the Locus extending from the Earth?s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2,000 km above the Earth surface....
 (LEO) stations are implemented, also known as orbital stations. A space station is distinguished from other manned spacecraft
Spacecraft

A spacecraft is a Craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters outer space then returns to the Earth....
 by its lack of major propulsion
Spacecraft propulsion

Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research....
 or landing
Landing

Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing" and "touchdown" as well....
 facilities—instead, other vehicles are used as transport to and from the station. Space stations are designed for medium-term living in orbit
ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
, for periods of week
Week

A week is a grouping of days or a division of a larger grouping such as a lunar month, year, etc. The week allows for shorter routine than a month and benefits groups of people with organising market days, worship, taxes, etc....
s, month
Month

The month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which is approximately as long as some natural Orbital period related to the motion of the Moon; month and Moon are cognates....
s, or even year
Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is the time in which Mars completes its own orbit....
s.






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A space station is an artificial structure designed for human
Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
s to live in outer space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
. So far only low earth orbit
Low Earth orbit

A Low Earth Orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the Locus extending from the Earth?s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2,000 km above the Earth surface....
 (LEO) stations are implemented, also known as orbital stations. A space station is distinguished from other manned spacecraft
Spacecraft

A spacecraft is a Craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters outer space then returns to the Earth....
 by its lack of major propulsion
Spacecraft propulsion

Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research....
 or landing
Landing

Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing" and "touchdown" as well....
 facilities—instead, other vehicles are used as transport to and from the station. Space stations are designed for medium-term living in orbit
ORBit

ORBit is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker . It features mature C , C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp , Pascal , Ruby , and Tcl....
, for periods of week
Week

A week is a grouping of days or a division of a larger grouping such as a lunar month, year, etc. The week allows for shorter routine than a month and benefits groups of people with organising market days, worship, taxes, etc....
s, month
Month

The month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which is approximately as long as some natural Orbital period related to the motion of the Moon; month and Moon are cognates....
s, or even year
Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is the time in which Mars completes its own orbit....
s. The only space station currently in use is the International Space Station
International Space Station

The International Space Station is a research facility Assembly of the International Space Station in outer space. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015....
. Previous ones are the Almaz
Almaz

The Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
, Salyut series, Skylab
Skylab

Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit, and the second space station ever visited by a human crew. The 100 ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979, and it was visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974....
 and Mir
Mir

Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
.

Space stations are currently (as of 2007) used to study the effects of long-term space flight on the human body as well as to provide platforms for greater number and length of scientific studies than available on other space vehicles. Since the ill-fated flight of Soyuz 11
Soyuz 11

Soyuz 11 was the first successful visit to the world's first space station, Salyut 1. However the mission ended in Space accidents and incidents when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the three-man crew....
 to Salyut 1
Salyut 1

Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, and the first Soviet space station. It was launched on April 19, 1971. Its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but was unable to board it due to a failure in the docking mechanism; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days....
, all manned spaceflight duration records have been set aboard space stations. The duration record for a single spaceflight
Spaceflight

Spaceflight is the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spacecraft into and through outer space.Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and telecommunications satellite....
 is 437.7 days, set by Valeriy Polyakov
Valeriy Polyakov

Valeriy Vladimirovich Polyakov is a Russian cosmonaut. He holds the record for the longest spaceflight in human history,staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip....
 aboard Mir
Mir

Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
 from 1994 to 1995. As of 2008, three astronauts have completed single missions of over a year, all aboard Mir.

Uses

Space stations have been used for both military and civilian purposes. The last military-use space station was Salyut 5
Salyut 5

Salyut 5 was launched on June 22, 1976 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton . It was the third and last Almaz military space station, included in the Salyut program to conceal its true purpose....
, which was used by the Almaz
Almaz

The Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
 program of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 in 1976 and 1977.

Types of space stations


Monolithic

Broadly speaking, the space stations so far launched have been of two types; the earlier stations, Salyut and Skylab
Skylab

Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit, and the second space station ever visited by a human crew. The 100 ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979, and it was visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974....
, have been "monolithic", intended to be constructed and launched in one piece, and then manned by a crew later. As such, they generally contained all their supplies and experimental equipment when launched, and were considered "expended", and then abandoned, when these were used up.

Starting with Salyut 6
Salyut 6

Salyut 6 was a Soviet Union orbital station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut program. Launched on September 29, 1977 by a Proton , the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station....
 and Salyut 7
Salyut 7

Salyut 7 was the final space station launched into Low Earth orbit as part of the Soviet Union's Salyut Program. Launched on April 19, 1982, on a Proton from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the USSR, Salyut 7 was part of the transition from "monolithic" to "modular" space stations, acting as a testbed for docking...
, a change was seen; these were built with two docking ports, which allowed a second crew to visit, bringing a new spacecraft with them (for technical reasons, a Soyuz
Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia....
 capsule cannot safely spend more than a few months in orbit, even powered down). This allowed for a crew to man the station continually. Skylab
Skylab

Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit, and the second space station ever visited by a human crew. The 100 ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979, and it was visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974....
 was also equipped with two docking ports, like second-generation stations, but the extra port was never utilized. The presence of a second port on the new stations allowed Progress
Progress spacecraft

The Progress is a Russian expendable freighter spacecraft. The spacecraft is an unmanned resupply spacecraft during its flight but upon docking with a space station it allows astronauts inside, hence it is classified manned by the manufacturer....
 supply vehicles to be docked to the station, meaning that fresh supplies could be brought to aid long-duration missions. This concept was expanded on Salyut 7, which "hard docked" with a TKS tug
TKS spacecraft

TKS spacecraft was designed by Vladimir Chelomei as a manned spacecraft launched with Proton rocket alternative to the Soyuz spacecraft to supply the military Almaz space station....
 shortly before it was abandoned; this served as a proof-of-concept for the use of modular space stations. The later Salyuts may reasonably be seen as a transition between the two groups.

Modular

The second group, Mir
Mir

Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
 and the ISS, have been modular; a core unit was launched, and additional modules, generally with a specific role, were later added to that. (On Mir they were usually launched independently, whereas on the ISS most are brought by the Shuttle). This method allows for greater flexibility in operation, as well as removing the need for a single immensely powerful launch vehicle. These stations are also designed from the outset to have their supplies provided by logistical support, which allows for a longer lifetime at the cost of requiring regular support launches.

Habitability issues

These stations have various issues that limit their long-term habitability, such as very low recycling rates, relatively high radiation levels and a lack of gravity. Some of these problems cause discomfort and long-term health effects. In the case of solar flares, all current habitats are protected by the Earth's magnetic field, and are below the Van Allen belts.

Future space habitat
Space habitat

A space habitat, also called space colony, orbital colony, space city, or space settlement is a space station intended as a space colonization rather than as a simple waystation or other specialized facility....
s may attempt to address these issues, and are intended for long-term occupation. Some designs might even accommodate large numbers of people, essentially "cities
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 in space" where people would make their homes. No such design has yet been constructed, since even for a small station, the current (2009) launch costs are not economically or politically viable.

Possible ways to deal with these costs would be building a large amount of rockets (economies of scale), reusable rockets, In Situ Resource Utilisation or if space elevator
Space elevator

A space elevator is a proposed structure designed to transport material from a Astronomical object's surface into space. Many variants have been proposed, all of which involve traveling along a fixed structure instead of using rocket powered space launch....
s are ever able to be constructed.

Architecture

A space station is a complex system with many interrelated subsystems:

  1. Structure
  2. Electrical power
  3. Thermal control
  4. Attitude determination and control
  5. Orbital navigation and propulsion
  6. Automation and robotics
  7. Computing and communications
  8. Environmental and life support
  9. Crew facilities
  10. Crew and cargo transportation


Past and present space stations

(dates refer to periods when stations were inhabited by crews)

  • Salyut space stations (USSR, 1971-1986)
    • Salyut 1
      Salyut 1

      Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, and the first Soviet space station. It was launched on April 19, 1971. Its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but was unable to board it due to a failure in the docking mechanism; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days....
       (1971, 1 crew and 1 failed docking)
    • DOS-2
      DOS-2

      DOS 2 was the name used to refer to a Salyut program module. Launch by a Proton was attempted July 29, 1972, but a second stage failure prevented the intended space station from reaching orbit....
       (1972, launch failure)
    • Salyut 2
      Salyut 2

      Salyut 2 was launched April 4, 1973. It was not really a part of the same program as the other Salyut space stations, instead being the highly classified prototype military space station Almaz....
      /Almaz
      Almaz

      The Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
       (1973, failed shortly after launch)
    • Cosmos 557
      Cosmos 557

      The Salyut space station that Almaz had substituted for, designated DOS 3, was launched on May 11, 1973, three days before the launch of Skylab....
       (1973, re-entered eleven days after launch)
    • Salyut 3
      Salyut 3

      Salyut 3 was launched on June 25, 1974. It was another Almaz military space station, this one launched successfully, included in the Salyut program to disguise its true purpose....
      /Almaz       (1974, 1 crew and 1 failed docking)
    • Salyut 4
      Salyut 4

      Salyut 4 was a Salyut space station launched on December 26, 1974 into an orbit with an apogee of 355 km, a perigee of 343 km and an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees....
       (1975, 2 crews and 1 planned crew failed to achieve orbit)
    • Salyut 5
      Salyut 5

      Salyut 5 was launched on June 22, 1976 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton . It was the third and last Almaz military space station, included in the Salyut program to conceal its true purpose....
      /Almaz       (1976-1977, 2 crews and 1 failed docking)
    • Salyut 6
      Salyut 6

      Salyut 6 was a Soviet Union orbital station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut program. Launched on September 29, 1977 by a Proton , the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station....
       (1977-1981, 16 crews (5 long duration, 11 short duration and 1 failed docking)
    • Salyut 7
      Salyut 7

      Salyut 7 was the final space station launched into Low Earth orbit as part of the Soviet Union's Salyut Program. Launched on April 19, 1982, on a Proton from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the USSR, Salyut 7 was part of the transition from "monolithic" to "modular" space stations, acting as a testbed for docking...
       (1982-1986, 10 crews (6 long duration, 4 short duration and 1 failed docking)


  • Skylab
    Skylab

    Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit, and the second space station ever visited by a human crew. The 100 ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979, and it was visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974....
     space station (USA, 1973-1974, 3 crews)


  • Mir
    Mir

    Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
     space station (USSR/Russia, 1986-2000, 28 long duration crews
    List of Mir Expeditions

    This is a list of expeditions to the Mir. Unless otherwise stated, crew members are from the bloc of countries comprising the former Soviet Union....
    )


  • International Space Station
    International Space Station

    The International Space Station is a research facility Assembly of the International Space Station in outer space. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015....
     (ISS)     (USA, Russia, Japan, European Space Agency, Canada, Italy 2000-ongoing, 18 long duration crews
    List of International Space Station Expeditions

    This is a list of a permanent crews assigned to the International Space Station . All permanent ISS crews are named , where n is sequentially increased with each expedition....
     to date)


Following the controlled deorbiting of Mir in 2001, the International Space Station is the only one of these currently in orbit; it has been continuously occupied since October 30, 2000.

List of occupied space stations, with statistics

Space station Image Launched Reentered Days in use Total crew
and visitors		 Visits Mass
(kg)
In orbit Occupied Manned Unmanned
Salyut 1
Salyut 1

Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, and the first Soviet space station. It was launched on April 19, 1971. Its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but was unable to board it due to a failure in the docking mechanism; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days....
 Apr 19, 1971
01:40:00 UTC		 Oct 11, 1971 175 24 3 2 0
Salyut 2
Salyut 2

Salyut 2 was launched April 4, 1973. It was not really a part of the same program as the other Salyut space stations, instead being the highly classified prototype military space station Almaz....
Almaz Station With Soyuz
 Apr 4, 1973
Failed to enter earth orbit		 May 28, 1973 - - - - -
Skylab
Skylab

Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit, and the second space station ever visited by a human crew. The 100 ton space station was in Earth's orbit from 1973 to 1979, and it was visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974....
Skylab and Earth Limb
 May 14, 1973
17:30:00 UTC		 Jul 11, 1979
16:37:00 UTC		 2,249 171 9 3 0
Salyut 3
Salyut 3

Salyut 3 was launched on June 25, 1974. It was another Almaz military space station, this one launched successfully, included in the Salyut program to disguise its true purpose....
Almaz Station With Soyuz
 Jun 25, 1974
22:38:00 UTC		 Jan 24, 1975 213 15 2 1 0
Salyut 4
Salyut 4

Salyut 4 was a Salyut space station launched on December 26, 1974 into an orbit with an apogee of 355 km, a perigee of 343 km and an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees....
Salyut 4 Diagram
 Dec 26, 1974
04:15:00 UTC		 Feb 3, 1977 770 92 4 2 1
Salyut 5
Salyut 5

Salyut 5 was launched on June 22, 1976 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton . It was the third and last Almaz military space station, included in the Salyut program to conceal its true purpose....
Almaz Station With Soyuz
 Jun 22, 1976
18:04:00 UTC		 Aug 8, 1977 412 67 4 2 0
Salyut 6
Salyut 6

Salyut 6 was a Soviet Union orbital station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut program. Launched on September 29, 1977 by a Proton , the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station....
Salyut6 With Two Docked Spacecrafts
 Sep 29, 1977
06:50:00 UTC		 Jul 29, 1982 1,764 683 33 16 14
Salyut 7
Salyut 7

Salyut 7 was the final space station launched into Low Earth orbit as part of the Soviet Union's Salyut Program. Launched on April 19, 1982, on a Proton from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the USSR, Salyut 7 was part of the transition from "monolithic" to "modular" space stations, acting as a testbed for docking...
Salyut7
 Apr 19, 1982
19:45:00 UTC		 Feb 7, 1991 3,216 816 26 12 15
Mir
Mir

Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
 Feb 19, 1986
21:28:23 UTC		 Mar 23, 2001
05:50:00 UTC		 5,511 4,594 137 39 68
ISS
International Space Station

The International Space Station is a research facility Assembly of the International Space Station in outer space. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015....
 Nov 20, 1998 Currently in orbit
Projected 2017		 †3,429 †2,753 †158 †41 †32


Crew and visitors counting is non-distinct.

  • †ISS stats as of April 10, 2008.
  • †ISS stats as of April 10, 2008.25 shuttles, 16 Soyuz, 28 Progress, 1 ATV, 3 automated modules


Canceled space stations

Mol Usaf
*A second Skylab unit (Skylab B
Skylab B

Skylab B was a concept for a second United States space station similar to Skylab that was planned to be launched by NASA for different purposes, mostly involving the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, but was canceled due to lack of funding....
) was manufactured, as a backup article; due to the high costs of providing launch vehicles, and a desire by NASA to cease Saturn and Apollo operations in time to prepare for the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
 coming into service, it was never flown. The hull can now be seen in the National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, and is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums....
, in Washington DC, where it is a popular tourist attraction.

  • A number of additional Salyuts were produced, as backups or as flight articles that were later canceled.


  • The U.S. Space Station Freedom
    Space Station Freedom

    Space Station Freedom was the name given to NASA's project to construct a permanently manned Earth-orbiting space station. Although approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union Address, Freedom was never constructed or completed as originally designed, and after several cutbacks, the remnants of the pr...
     program, which - despite being under development for ten years - was never launched, evolved into the International Space Station


  • The Soviet/Russian Mir-2
    Mir-2

    Mir-2 was a space station project begun in February 1976. Some of the modules built for Mir-2 have been incorporated into the International Space Station ....
     station, which was never constructed, had some of its elements incorporated into the International Space Station.


  • The Industrial Space Facility was a station proposed in the 1980s that was to be privately funded. The project was canceled when the company created to build it, Space Industries Incorporated
    Space Industries Incorporated

    Space Industries Incorporated was a company formed in the 1980s for the purpose of building a privately owned space station, which was to be called the Industrial Space Facility ....
    , was unable to secure funding from the United States government.


  • United States Air Force
    United States Air Force

    The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Military of the United States and one of the uniformed services of the United States....
     Manned Orbiting Laboratory
    Manned Orbiting Laboratory

    The Manned Orbital Laboratory was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar project....
     project, canceled in 1969 about a year before the first planned test flight; this was unusual in being an explicitly military project, as opposed to the Soviet Almaz
    Almaz

    The Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
     program, which was heavily intertwined with - and concealed by - the contemporaneous Salyut program.


  • The European Columbus project planned to create a small space station serviced by the Hermes
    Hermes (shuttle)

    Hermes was a proposed spaceplane designed by the French Centre national d'?tudes spatiales in 1975, and later by the European Space Agency, which was superficially similar to the US X-20....
     shuttle. It evolved into the ISS Columbus
    Columbus (ISS module)

    Columbus is a science laboratory that is part of the International Space Station and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency ....
     module.


Future developments

  • Currently, Bigelow Aerospace
    Bigelow Aerospace

    Bigelow Aerospace is a North Las Vegas, Nevada space technology startup company that is pioneering work on expandable space station modules. It was founded in 1999 by hotelier Robert Bigelow....
     is developing commercial inflatable habitat modules, derived from the earlier NASA Transhab
    Transhab

    Transhab was a concept pursued by NASA to develop the technology for expandable habitats inflated by air in space. Specifically, Transhab was intended as a replacement for the already existing rigid International Space Station crew Habitation Module....
     concept, intended to be used for space station construction and for a space prize they are funding and operating, America's Space Prize
    America's Space Prize

    America's Space Prize is a United States dollar50 million space competition in orbital spaceflight established and funded by hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow....
    . Genesis I and Genesis II
    Genesis II

    Genesis II was a 1973 TV movie created and produced by Gene Roddenberry, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, and starring Alex Cord and Mariette Hartley....
     are ?-scale unmanned prototype modules orbited to test the feasibility of inflatable structures and other systems in space. Future modules include the Galaxy
    Galaxy (module)

    Galaxy is a canceled prototype space habitat designed by the United States firm Bigelow Aerospace, and was intended to be the third spacecraft launched by the company in their efforts to create a commercial space station....
    , Sundancer
    Sundancer

    Sundancer is the proposed third prototype space habitat to be launched by Bigelow Aerospace and the first human-rated inflatable module based on the Transhab design by NASA....
     and BA 330, each being progressively larger and more complicated, with the BA 330 intended as the full-scale manned production model for Bigelow's expandable space habitation module program.


  • Project 921-2
    Project 921-2

    Project 921-2 is the name given by the People's Republic of China in 1992 for plans to create a manned space station. China will launch a small 8.5 ton space laboratory called Tiangong 1 in 2010....
     is the working name given by the People's Republic of China
    People's Republic of China

    The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
     for plans to create a manned space station by 2012.


  • In April 2008, the Russian space agency has proposed the construction of an orbital construction yard for spacecraft too heavy to launch from Earth directly. It would not begin construction or be finished until after the decommission of the International Space Station.


  • Galactic Suite
    Galactic Suite

    Galactic Suite is a planned private space station intended for use as an orbital hotel. The company behind the project, Galactic Suite Limited of Barcelona, Spain, plans to have the station operational by 2012, and says that investors have come forward to finance the station....
     is a space hotel planned to be operational by 2012.


Bibliography


See also

  • Kerim Kerimov
    Kerim Kerimov

    Kerim Aliyevich Kerimov was an Azerbaijani Soviet Union rocket scientist, one of the founders of the Soviet space industry, and for many years a central figure in the Soviet space program....
    , lead architect behind earliest space stations
  • Lunar outpost
    Lunar outpost (NASA)

    The Lunar outpost will be an inhabited facility on the surface of the Moon which NASA currently plans to construct over the five years between 2019 and 2024....
  • Lunar space elevator
    Lunar space elevator

    A lunar space elevator is a proposed cable running from the surface of the Moon into space.It is similar in concept to the better known Earth space elevator idea ....
  • Space colonization
    Space colonization

    Space colonization is the concept of autonomous human Space habitat of locations outside Earth.It is a major science fiction themes in science fiction, as well as a long-term goal of various national space programs....
  • Space stations and habitats in popular culture
  • Space habitat
    Space habitat

    A space habitat, also called space colony, orbital colony, space city, or space settlement is a space station intended as a space colonization rather than as a simple waystation or other specialized facility....


External links

  • [news:sci.space.station Space Station Newsgroup - sci.space.station]