What was the First Space Station?
Like many other firsts in space exploration, the first space station was launched by the Soviet Union. Like quite a few other space stories, it ended in tragedy. Launched on 19 April 1971, just two years after the Americans landed on the Moon, Salyut 1 was a 15.6 m by 4 m cylinder with 99 m3 of interior space — similar to the size of a school bus. The space station had a dry weight of 18,425 kg, and was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in present-day Kazakhstan. The purpose of Salyut 1 was to put into orbit the first manned facility for long-term research and observation, both as a proof of concept for space stations in general and to conduct experiments and observations which satellites could not perform on their own. Salyut is one of nine space stations that have ever been inhabited as of November 2007. The space station had four compartments, three of which were pressurized. These included the main compartment, a transfer compartment, auxillary compartment, and storage compartm
