Last Updated : August 21, 2001

A space station is a special kind of earth satellite. It is designed so that many people can live and work in orbit for a longer time than they could in an ordinary crowded spacecraft. Each mission in a spacestation can go on for months without fresh supplies.

It can be either constructed in space by assembling indiviual componenets launched into space separately or by launching a completely built piece in one go. U.S.'s Skylab and U.S.S.R's Mir and a number of Salyut stations were launched using the latter technique. The upcoming International Space Station or ISS will be completed by building it piece by piece.

An operating space station requires some way to reach it frequently to change crews and to provide fresh supplies and equipment. Russians used both manned(Soyuz) and unmanned(Progress) craft to do this. The US relies on the space shuttle.

A space station has several uses:

• Scientific research
• Can be used as stopping-off places for space ships.
• Space tourism.
• As weapons(?)
• As the last lifeboats for the human race (!)

USA's Skylab Training Facility