Space Stations

Space Stations

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What is a space station?

A space station is where experiments are conducted in outer space . It is a place for astronauts to live in while they conduct these experiments. It can be in space anywhere from a day to many years.

What are some space stations in use today?

Some of the space stations include the Salyut stations, Skylab, Mir, and the International Space Stations (ISS).

Space Station Missions : Salyut

Salyut- the Salyut space station program was a program launched by the Russians in the 1970's, in the Salyut space station missions, each Salyut from 1-7 had a specific purpose

Salyut 1- it is the first space station ever orbited , launched in April 19, 1971, the first time they tried to board it however, was a complete failure, Soyuz 10's crew was unable to board the space station, the next crew Soyuz 11 was able to work in the space station for 23 full days, unfortunately, even though the space station got to Earth on October 11, 1971 the crew had a fatal accident

Salyut 2,3,5 - was launched on April 3, 1973, it was secretly a prototype military base, it was given the name Salyut 2,3 and 5 to prevent suspicion

Salyut 4,6,7- these space stations were a complete success and used left over parts from older space stations, a space record on Salyut 6 when a crew of astronauts stayed in space for 96 days, a record back then

Space Station Missions : Skylab

Skylab- the Skylab space station was the first American space station to be launched into orbit, the main objectives of the Skylab missions was for humans to live in space and expand our knowledge of the solar system

Skylab 1- Skylab 1 was launched into orbit by a Saturn V Booster however, as soon as the space station launched problems began, a meteoroid shield was destroyed and it also destroyed a solar panel, because the space station was in a position to receive as much sun light as possible the temperature had reached up to 126 degrees Fahrenheit

Skylab 2- this was the first manned mission and the crew of Charles Conrad, Jr., Paul J. Weitz, Joseph P. Kerwin had spent 28 days and 50 minutes on Skylab 2, onboard the crew had performed experiments on solar astronomy and the Earth's resources, 404 orbits and 392 experiment hours were logged

Skylab 3- the crew of Alan L. Bean, Jack R. Lousma, Owen K. Garriott had stayed in space for 59 days and 11 hours, they conducted medical and detailed scientific work, they completed 858 orbits and 1,081 hours of space and Earth experiments

Skylab 4- Skylab 4 had a mission to study Comet Kohoutek and many other missions as well, this was the last of the Skylab space stations and it completed 1,214 orbits

Space Station Missions : Mir

Mir- a space station that was originally made by the Soviet Union and then was later transferred to the Russians, it is the first long term research station, thanks to much team work, astronauts and cosmonauts of many different countries got to use this space station

Space Station Missions : The ISS

ISS- the ISS (International Space Station) is a combination of efforts from five space agencies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (The United States), the Russian Federal Space Agency (The Russian Federation), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Japan), the Canadian Space Agency (Canada) and the European Space Agency (Europe), currently the only permanent astronauts on the ISS have come from Russian or American space programs.

The International Space Station is estimated to cost about 100 Billion dollars. It also carried the first space tourist who had paid 20 million dollars to fly on a Russian space station supply mission. The first space wedding has also taken place abroad the ISS space station between Yuri Malenchenko and Ekaterina Dmitriev who was in Texas.