Explore Space Stations through the missions, discoveries, rivalries and collaborations that expanded humanity's reach beyond Earth. This timeline links each milestone to the wider story of science, engineering, politics and exploration, from early experiments to robotic missions, crewed flight and commercial spaceflight. It shows how ambition and innovation reshaped our understanding of the Solar System and the universe.
A New Era in Orbit The launch of Salyut 1 on 19 April 1971 represented a fundamental shift in the trajectory of human spaceflight. By placing the world’s first space station into low Earth orbit, the Soviet Union transit...
View itemThe Dawn of American Orbital Habitation On 14 May 1973, the United States successfully launched Skylab , a project that fundamentally altered the nation’s approach to life beyond Earth. As the country's first dedicated s...
View itemA New Era of Orbital Habitation The launch of Salyut 6 on 29 September 1977 represented a decisive shift in how humanity approached the challenge of living and working in orbit. Unlike its predecessors, which were largel...
View itemThe Dawn of Modular Spaceflight The launch of the Mir core module on 20 February 1986 represented a fundamental shift in how humanity approached long-term habitation beyond Earth's atmosphere. Unlike its predecessors, wh...
View itemThe Foundation of a New Era The launch of Zarya on 20 November 1998 stands as the inaugural moment for the International Space Station, transforming the concept of a long-term orbital laboratory from a theoretical ambiti...
View itemThe Birth of an Integrated Station The successful docking of the Unity node to the Zarya module on 4 December 1998 transformed the International Space Station from a collection of isolated components into a functional, i...
View itemA New Era of Continuous Presence The arrival of Expedition 1 at the International Space Station on 2 November 2000 fundamentally altered the trajectory of human activity in low Earth orbit. By successfully docking and es...
View itemA New Era in Orbit The launch of Tiangong-1 on 29 September 2011 served as a decisive moment for China’s national space programme, marking the nation's first successful deployment of a prototype space station laboratory....
View itemThe Launch of Tiangong-2 The successful launch of Tiangong-2 on 15 September 2016 represented a decisive step in China’s long-term strategy for establishing a permanent human presence in low Earth orbit. As a successor t...
View itemThe Foundation of Tiangong The launch of the Tianhe core module on 29 April 2021 served as the definitive starting point for the assembly of the Tiangong space station. By placing this primary component into low Earth or...
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