Abstract
Since the end of the Moon Race, space stations have become the mainstay of human spaceflight. The Soviets sent up the first one in 1971, together with the story that such a station had been their real goal all along and that they had never intended to land cosmonauts on the Moon by 1970 at all. Over a span of eleven years, the Soviet Union launched no less than seven Salyut space stations, with the final crew leaving the last one in 1986. In that timeframe, NASA launched and operated only a single station, Skylab, instead putting most of its money and effort into the development of the Space Shuttle.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Pelt, M. (2017). Space stations and orbital colonies. In: Dream Missions. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53941-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53941-6_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53939-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53941-6
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)