Imagine waking up in the morning, looking out your window and seeing this view. Breathtaking, isn't it? What would it be like to live in space? Is it only science fiction, or will it be a real possibility in the near future?

Florida peninsula from space
Photo courtesy NASA
View of the Florida peninsula from space.

For years, and for various reasons, people (scientists, astronauts, science fiction writers, the general public) have dreamed of having a permanent space station in orbit around Earth. For some, space stations are a place to do cutting edge scientific research in an environment that can not be matched on Earth. For others, space stations are a place for business, where unique materials (crystals, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals) can be manufactured in better forms than on Earth. Still others dream of space stations as staging points for expeditions to the planets and stars, as tourist attractions, or even as new cities and colonies that could relieve an overpopulated planet. Whatever the dream, space stations are not that far off. The United States and Russia have had orbiting space stations since 1971 and are now cooperating with other nations to build the International Space Station, a place that will maintain a permanent human presence in space.

Space Station Image Gallery 

artist's concept of ISS
Photo courtesy NASA
Artist's concept of the completed International Space Station.
See more Space Station pictures.

What will the space station look like? What will it be like to live and work in space? What problems are involved in establishing a space station? What will it be used for? In this article, we will examine the fascinating world of space stations.

A Little History

artist's concept of space colony
Photo courtesy NASA
Credit: Rick Guidice
Artist's concept of a space colony.
From the early days of science fiction and space exploration, we have dreamed of space stations. Visionaries have proposed space stations as outposts in orbit, much like the forts and outposts of the U.S. western frontier of the 18th and 19th centuries. The outposts in space would be places for people to conduct business, do science and travel to the planets and stars. Typically, these stations have been envisioned as large rotating wheels that have gravity, like those seen in films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey" or in television shows like "Star Trek Deep Space 9" or "Babylon 5." But the space stations of today bear little resemblance to those of science fiction.

Salyut
The Russians (then the Soviet Union) were the first to place a space station, called Salyut 1, in orbit in 1971. The Salyut 1 station was a combination of the Almaz and Soyuz spacecraft systems. It was about 45 feet (15 meters) long and held three main compartments that housed dining and recreation areas, food and water storage, a toilet, control stations, exercise equipment and scientific equipment. The Soyuz 11 crew was the first crew to live on Salyut 1 for 24 days; but tragically, they died upon returning to Earth. Further missions to Salyut 1 were canceled, and the Soyuz spacecraft was redesigned.

During the 1970s, the Russians launched several other Salyut space stations (Salyuts 4-7) where they tested the new Soyuz spacecraft, developed and tested unmanned docking supply ships called Progress ships, conducted scientific experiments and logged some of the longest space flights at that time. The Salyut program eventually led to the development of Russia's Mir space station.


Photo courtesy NASA
Diagram of the Salyut-4 space station docked to a Soyuz spacecraft.

Skylab
The United States placed its first, and only, space station, called Skylab 1, in orbit in 1973. During the launch, the station was damaged. A critical meteoroid shield and one of the station's two main solar panels were ripped off and the other solar panel was not fully stretched out. That meant that Skylab had little electrical power and the internal temperature rose to 126 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius). The first crew was launched 10 days later to fix the ailing station. The astronauts stretched out the remaining solar panel and set up an umbrella-like sunshade to cool the station. With the station repaired, that crew and two subsequent crews spent a total of 112 days in space, conducting scientific and biomedical research.

Diagram of Skylab 1
Photo courtesy NASA
Diagram of the Skylab 1 orbiting workshop.

Photo of Skylab 1 with sunshade
Photo courtesy NASA
Photograph of Skylab 1 in orbit after its repairs. Note the gold sunshade.

Skylab was modified from the third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket. Skylab had the following parts:

  • Orbital Workshop - living and working quarters for the crew
  • Airlock Module - allowed access to the outside of the station
  • Multiple Docking Adapter - allowed more than one Apollo spacecraft to dock to the station at once
  • Apollo Telescope Mount - contained telescopes for observing the sun, stars and Earth (remember that the Hubble Space Telescope had not been built yet!)
  • Apollo spacecraft - command and service module for transporting the crew to and from the Earth's surface
Skylab was never meant to be a permanent home in space, but rather a workshop where the United States could test the effects of long-duration space flights (that is, greater than the two weeks required to go to the moon) on the human body. When the flight of the third crew was finished, Skylab was abandoned. Skylab remained aloft until intense solar flare activity caused its orbit to decay sooner than expected. Skylab re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned over Australia in 1979.

Mir
In 1986, the Russians launched the Mir space station; Mir was intended to be a permanent home in space. Mir contains the following parts:

  • Core Assembly
    • living quarters - individual crew cabins, toilet, shower, kitchen, trash storage
    • transfer compartment - where additional station modules can be attached
    • intermediate compartment - connects working module to the rear docking ports
    • assembly compartment - where the fuel tanks and rocket engines are located
  • Kvant-1 Astrophysics module - contains telescopes to study galaxies, quasars and neutron stars
  • Kvant-2 Scientific and Airlock module - provides equipment for biological research, Earth observations and spacewalk capabilities
  • Kristall Technological module - used for biological and material processing experiments; contains a docking port that can be used by the U.S. space shuttle
  • Priroda Remote Sensing module - contains radar and spectrometers to study the Earth's atmosphere
  • Docking module - contains ports for future shuttle dockings
  • Progress supply ship - unmanned resupply ship that brings new food and equipment form Earth and removes waste materials from the station
  • Soyuz spacecraft - main transport to and from Earth's surface

artist's drawing of Mir with docked space shuttle
Photo courtesy NASA
Artist's drawing of Mir space station with a docked space shuttle.

In preparation for the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts (including Norm Thagard, Shannon Lucid, Jerry Linenger and Michael Foale) spent time aboard Mir. Mir was damaged by a fire during Linenger's stay, and crashed with a Progress supply ship during Foale's stay. The Russian space agency could no longer afford to maintain Mir, so NASA and the Russian space agency had planned to junk the station in order to concentrate on the ISS. Although a private movement (Keep Mir Alive!) and a company (MirCorp) publicly campaigned to repair and privatize the aging space station, the Russian Space Agency decided on November 16, 2000, to bring Mir down to Earth. On February 2001, Mir's rocket engines were fired to slow it down. Mir re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on March 23, 2001, burned and broke up. Debris crashed in the south Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles (1,667 km) east of Australia.