The first word that strikes us when we hear the terms ‘space station’ is the International Space Station. While it’s the current and only operational space station in the Earth’s orbit, it was not the first space station in the outer space. There have been several space stations before and many projects are well underway by many countries in the world. For those who do not know, a space station is an orbital space station or spacecraft that is capable of supporting humans in orbit for a long period of time. Why do we need a space station is a question that is asked often. well, to answer the question, the purpose of maintaining a space station depends on the program. While scientific researches is the most common answer, there have been space stations maintained for military purposes as well.
In this article, you will find all the past crewed space stations that are no longer operational and have been de-orbited. Arranged from the most recent to the oldest, these are some of the most important manmade objects ever launched.
1. Tiangong 2
Tiangong 2 (which literally means Celestial Palace 2) was a Chinese space station and part of the program Project 921-2. Launched on 15 September 2016, the space laboratory was de-orbited on 19 July 2019, as planned. The space station was just a test bed for key technologies that mostly will be used for a launch of a future Chinese space station. The 2 astronauts that were aboard the space station for 30 days performed various technical and scientific experiments including the physiological effect of weightlessness, in-orbit maintenance technologies and tests on the collaboration of human-machine.
2. Tiangong 1
Tiangong 1 was the first Chinese prototype space station that was launched on 29 September 2011. It was operational until April 2018 and served as both; a crewed laboratory as well as a test bed for experiments to determine docking capabilities and orbital rendezvous during the two years of its active life. During its lifetimes, the station was visited by various Shenzhou spacecraft, crewed and unscrewed both, one of which included the first Chinese female astronauts.
3. Mir
Russia has always been a step forward than everyone else during the start of the space race. They were the first one to launch a crewed spacecraft as well as the first to dock their own space station in Earth’s orbit. Most of the space station in this list were by then USSR. Mir is one of the most popular space stations in history. From 1986 to 2001, it orbited in ‘Low Earth Orbit’. It was also the first modular space station assembled between the years 1986 to 1996. During that time, it was the biggest artificial satellite in the orbit. It was essentially a microgravity research laboratory where the crews conducted experiments in human biology, astronomy, physics, biology and spacecraft systems to develop technologies that were required for permanently staying in space.
4. Salyut 7
Launched in April 1982, Salyut 7 was a Russian space station in low earth orbit. It was used for a total of 12 crewed and 15 un-crewed missions. It was launched to test docking of extra modules and station operations. It was the last space station in the Salyut Program. It was the orbit for 3215 days in total and out of those, it was occupied for 816 days. It was de-orbited in February 1991.
5. Salyut 6
Salyut 6 was the 8th flown space station in the Salyut programme. It was launched on 29 September 1977 using a Proton rocket and was the first “second generation” type of orbital station. While it resembled the design of its predecessors, it possessed various new advances that were revolutionary. During its stay of 1764 days in orbit, 5 crews took residence in the station, which accumulated to 683 days. It was de-orbited 5 years after its launch on 29 July 1982.
6. Salyut 5
Also known as OPS 3, Salyut 5 was launched in June of 1976 by the Soviet Union. It was the last Almaz space station that was launched for the country’s military. It was in operation for only 412 days, out of which only 67 days were inhabited by 2 crewed space crafts. While the primary experiments conducted were for military, a few scientific experiments also took place, which included observing the sun and studying aquarium fishes in microgravity.
7. Salyut 4
Before Salyut 5, Salyut 4 was in orbit from 26 December 1974 to 26 December 1974. This pace station had 3 large solar panels that were mounted on the forward module, which was different from all its predecessors. It was visited by 4 space crafts, 3 of which were crewed. Soyuz 20, the unmanned capsule was docked for 3 months, which proved the long-term durability of the system. Collectively, many scientific experiments were conducted as well as breeding of space vegetable, intensive fitness training and solar observation.
8. Salyut 3
Salyut 3 was the second space station for Almaz programme and was the first station of the type that was launched successfully. The reason it was included in the the Salyut programme was because of its military nature. From the beginning, the Soviet Union was reluctant to share ant information about the design and missions about the station. It was speculated that the station contained many cameras for earth observations as well as a gun. The station was de-orbited in January of 1975.
9. Skylab
Skylab was the first space station launched by NASA on 14 May 1973. It was occupied for roughly 24 weeks by SL-2, SL-3 and SL-4 that conducted a solar observatory, an orbital workshop, Earth observation and hundreds of other scientific experiments. It was unable to be re-booted by the Space Shuttle and decayed in the orbit and fell to pieces in the atmosphere across Western Australia and the Indian Ocean on 11 July 1979.
10. Salyut 1
Arguably one of the most important space stations in human history is Salyut 1. It was the first space station of any kind that was launched into low earth orbit. Soviet Union launched it on 19 April 1971 and was followed by 7 more launches that you read above. It also become the core part of the Russian segment in the ISS and is still in the orbit.
