Editing Space station (section)

=== Salyut, Almaz and Skylab ===
{{main|Salyut|Almaz|Skylab}}
[[File:Skylab 3 flyaround.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Skylab]] (1973–1974), the first U.S. space station and second overall]]
In 1971, the [[Soviet Union]] developed and launched the world's first space station, [[Salyut 1]].<ref name="Salyut">{{Cite book|title=Salyut – The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/304494949 |first=Grujica S. |last=Ivanovich |year=2008 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] |isbn=978-0-387-73973-1 |oclc=304494949}}</ref> The [[Almaz]] and [[Salyut Program|Salyut series]] were eventually joined by [[Skylab]], ''[[Mir]]'', and [[Tiangong-1]] and [[Tiangong-2]]. The hardware developed during the initial Soviet efforts remains in use, with evolved variants comprising a considerable part of the ISS, orbiting today. Each crew member stays aboard the station for weeks or months but rarely more than a year.

Early stations were monolithic designs that were constructed and launched in one piece, generally containing all their supplies and experimental equipment. A crew would then be launched to join the station and perform research. After the supplies had been consumed, the station was abandoned.<ref name="Salyut"/>

The first space station was [[Salyut 1]], which was launched by the [[Soviet Union]] on April 19, 1971. The early Soviet stations were all designated "Salyut", but among these, there were two distinct types: civilian and military. The military stations, [[Salyut 2]], [[Salyut 3]], and [[Salyut 5]], were also known as [[Almaz]] stations.<ref name="Outposts">{{Cite book |title=Outposts on the Frontier: A Fifty-Year History of Space Stations |first=Jay |last=Chladek |year=2017 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/990337324 |isbn=978-0-8032-2292-2 |others=Clayton C. Anderson |oclc=990337324}}</ref>

The civilian stations [[Salyut 6]] and [[Salyut 7]] were built with two docking ports, which allowed a second crew to visit, bringing a new spacecraft with them; the [[Soyuz 7K-T|Soyuz ferry]] could spend 90 days in space, at which point it needed to be replaced by a fresh Soyuz spacecraft.<ref name="MHH">{{cite web |author=Portree |first=D. S. F. |year=1995 |title=Mir Hardware Heritage |url=http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/RP1357.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907191412/http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/RP1357.pdf |archive-date=7 September 2009 |access-date=30 November 2010 |publisher=NASA}}</ref> This allowed for a crew to man the station continually. The American [[Skylab]] (1973–1979) was also equipped with two docking ports, like second-generation stations, but the extra port was never used. The presence of a second port on the new stations allowed [[Progress spacecraft|Progress]] 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 spacecraft|TKS tug]] 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.<ref name="Outposts"/>