Talk:List of space stations/Sandbox

A space station (also called an orbital station) is a manned satellite designed to remain in space (or most commonly low Earth orbit) for a long period of time, and which has the ability for other spacecraft to dock to it. A space station is distinguished from other manned spacecraft by its lack of major propulsion or landing facilities&mdash;instead, other vehicles are used to transport people and supplies to and from the station. The only space station currently in orbit is the International Space Station. Previous stations include the Almaz and Salyut series, Skylab and most recently Mir.

Space stations are used to study the effects of long-term space flight on the human body as well as to provide platforms for greater number and length of scientific studies than available on other space vehicles. All space stations have been designed with the intention of rotating multiple crews, with each crew member staying aboard the station for weeks or months, but rarely more than a year. Since the ill-fated flight of Soyuz 11 to Salyut 1, all manned spaceflight duration records have been set aboard space stations. The duration record for a single spaceflight is 437.7 days, set by Valeriy Polyakov aboard Mir from 1994 to 1995. , three astronauts have completed single missions of over a year, all aboard Mir.

Space stations have been used for both military and civilian purposes. The last military-use space station was Salyut 5, which was used by the Almaz program of the Soviet Union in 1976 and 1977.

Cancelled

 * Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) 🇺🇸 &mdash; The USAF equivalent to the Soviet Almaz programme, cancelled in 1969. The programme would have involved crews using the Gemini B spacecraft to travel to and from the station, carrying out reconnaissance duties using onboard optical instruments such as the KH-10 camera. One test flight was flown, of the boilerplate OPS 0855 MOL and Gemini 2.


 * Space Station Freedom 🇺🇸 &mdash; Intended to be a large, permanently manned space station to complement the Space Shuttle, Freedom was to function as an orbiting repair shop for satellites, an assembly point for spacecraft, an observation post for astronomers, a microgravity laboratory for scientists, and a microgravity factory for companies. Budgetart constraints, however, meant that the station was never assembled, with the project eventually merging into the International Space Station.
 * Mir-2 &mdash; Designed as a larger successor to Mir, and was to have DOS-8 as its core module. The fall of the Soviet Union meant the station was never flown, instead eventually merging into the International Space Station.
 * Columbus 🇪🇺 &mdash; A project to create a small space station serviced by the Hermes shuttle. The project was eventually merged into the International Space Station following the cancellation of the Hermes shuttle.
 * Skylab B 🇺🇸 &mdash; A second Skylab unit manufactured as a backup article; due to the high costs of providing launch vehicles, and a desire by NASA to cease Saturn and Apollo operations in time to prepare for the Space Shuttle coming into service, it was never flown. The hull can now be seen in the National Air and Space Museum, in Washington DC, where it is a popular tourist attraction.
 * Industrial Space Facility 🇺🇸 &mdash; A station proposed in the 1980s that was to be privately funded. The project was cancelled when the company created to build it, Space Industries Incorporated, was unable to secure funding from the United States government.

Planned
thumb|A 2010 conceptual image of [[Bigelow Aerospace's Space Complex Alpha.]]
 * Project 921 &mdash; Chinese space station programme, first launch planned for 2011 (which would make China the third nation to launch a space station). Currently consists of four stations:
 * Tiangong 1 (Project 921-2) &mdash; 9-tonne 'Target vehicle' consisting of a laboratory module, a resource module, and a docking mechanism. Scheduled for launch in October 2011.
 * Tiangong 2 &mdash; 20-tonne 'Space laboratory'. Scheduled for launch in 2013.
 * Tiangong 3 (Project 921-3) &mdash; Modular 'Space station'. Scheduled for launch in 2015.
 * Large orbital station &mdash; 60-tonne modular station. Scheduled for launch from 2020-2022 with an operational lifetime of 10 years, supporting 3 crewmembers long-term.


 * Bigelow Commercial Space Station 🇺🇸 &mdash; A private orbital complex developed by Bigelow Aerospace. The space station will be constructed of both Sundancer and BA 330 expandable spacecraft modules as well as a central docking node, propulsion, solar arrays, and attached crew capsules, comprising a total habitable volume of 690 m3. Initial launch of space station components is planned for 2014, with portions of the station available for leased use as early as 2015. Two prototype BA-330 modules, Genesis I and Genesis II, are already in orbit. Two station configurations have been announced:
 * Space Complex Alpha, consisting of two Sundancer modules and one BA-330 module. First announced in October 2010. Launches have been contracted with ULA on Atlas V launch vehicles, from Cape Canaveral, starting in 2014.
 * Space Complex Bravo, a second orbital station with a habitable volume of 1320 m3. Scheduled to begin launches in 2016.


 * Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex (OPSEK) 🇷🇺 &mdash; In April 2008, the Russian space agency proposed the construction of an orbital construction yard for spacecraft too heavy to launch from Earth directly. It would not begin construction or be finished until after the decommissioning of the International Space Station, as components of the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS would form the core of OPSEK. This plan was described to ISS partners by Anatoly Perminov on 17 June 2009.
 * Galactic Suite 🇪🇸 &mdash; A space hotel planned to be operational by 2012.
 * Excalibur Almaz
 * Orbital Technologies Commercial Space Station 🇷🇺 &mdash; Another plan to refit Soviet Almaz space stations for commercial purposes. The business arrangement for developing and marketing the station was recently clarified by Russian firm Orbital Technologies, who is collaborating to develop the station with RSC Energia Early plans call for an initial launch in 2015 or 2016.
 * Lunar Orbital Station 🇷🇺