The first real space station was Salyut 1, built by the now non-existent Soviet Union. It was launched on April 19, 1971. The Salyuts all were about 44.3 feet long and the average diameter of a cylindrical section was 10 feet. They weighed about 40,565 pounds each. Altogether, there were 7 Salyut stations.
The only real space station put into orbit by the U.S. was Skylab, launched May 14, 1973. It was used for 9 months by three separate crews as living and working quarters. It was 48 feet long and 28 feet in diameter, which provided 10,000 cubic feet of living space. The crews did astronomy, photography, biomedical, biological, and materials-processing experiments.
On February 20, 1986 Mir was launched by the (former) Soviet Union. Mir's core size is 56 feet long, and 13 feet wide. It was similar to the Salyut stations, but had added features such as 6 docking ports, more windows, two private compartments, and a slightly larger interior.
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