Space Stations

Skylab was America's first space station. Skylab was put in orbit in 1973, which was right after the Apollo program. Skylab could accommodate three astronauts at a time. As the years progressed, three crews of three astronauts were chosen. The crews would live up in Skylab from 24 days, to 84 days. The astronauts would get to Skylab through an Apollo space craft (without the Lunar Module). Before the fourth crew could get to Skylab, Skylab fell out of the orbit of Earth, and fell on a cow in Australia, SPLAT!

America's second space station is in planning, and will be called the International Space Station, or Space Station Alpha (SSA). SSA will be home to several US habitats, labs, shuttle docking areas, and will be put into orbit by several space shuttle missions. The other countries are Russia, which will have a lab, a habitat, and a Soyuz docking area; Italy and Canada, which will have radars, and Japan, and Europe, which will have laboratories. SSA is expected to be completed by the year 2000.





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