Space Stations

Skylab

By 1972 there had been six moon landings and people were tired of the

Apollo moon landings. Many people protested because they thought it was
costing a lot of money. After all the protesting the government canceled
three flights. When the flights were canceled NASA had left over rockets.
They wanted to use them to study Earth. That is how Skylab started.
Experiments were done on Skylab. Medical experiments were done as well as
Earth observation and also solar research. Skylab was launched from
Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 14,1973. 90 tons is how much
Skylab weighed. Skylab landed 270 miles above Earth. A panel on the
Skylab was torn off during the ascent into space and it was getting
dangerously hot. Although the Skylab project was saved. Skylab was a very
successful project.

Space Station Idea

There was a book called "The Brick Moon",Edward Everett Hale published in 1969

which gave the idea for a manned space station. German-Romanian rocket scientest
Herman Oberth made a sketch of a space station in 1923. Wernher von Braun
planned a space station with more complete drawings in the 1950's. Von Braun made
plans to keep the space station supplied after it was operational. Von Braun had
worked out all the details of the space station. It was a very big step toward the
first space station. This was made easier because Von Braun was an engineering
genius and also had wonderful public speaking skills. He gave his plans to many people
to look over. The public had seen his plans for the first time. Von Braun's proposal
was the most realistic proposal for a long time. Von Braun studied more and more
about the science of rocketry and convinced many people that it was possible. Von
Braun did many more favors for rocketry.

Russian Space Stations

The Russian and American Space Agencies were working on the International

Space Station which was a joint Apollo and Soyuz project. The Apollo and Soyuz
missions were going well-except the Russians could not get a man on the moon.
The Soviet Soyuz 19 and the Apollo capsule flew into orbit on the same day.
That day was July 15, 1975. On July 17 the two space craft docked. Soon
the Soviet Union gave up the idea of landing a man on the moon after many
failures. They started to get more focused on the Earth which was the start
of a new space station. In 1977 a manned space station called the Salyut 6
was launched. Eventually the Japanese, Americans, and Russians started working
on the International Space Station. The Mir space station was launched in
1986. The Mir helped people understand more so it was easier to make the
International Space Station. Soon the French started to participate. Then
astronauts from other places started to help. Soon we started to do tests.
Space Shuttles docked many times. These were the first steps toward the
International Space Station.

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Russian Space Station Zarya

The Russians Space Agency put up space station Zarya on November 22,1998.

Even though Russians built it Zarya was funded by other nations.They made plans
to have space walkers build the station and to have a shuttle bring people to the
station, but their plans didn't work out. Zarya will be taken down his year.