Page 30 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Many people think of a spAce stAtion as being the base for future exploration. Such a space station can sit in space and act as a docking stAtion for spacecraft shuttling between planets and distant stars.
In fact, getting anything into space is phenomenally expensive. Keeping people there is an order of magnitude more expensive still.
But it is not just a matter of cost. Space stations may be weightless in orbit, but they are very heavy when on the ground. A whole space station cannot simply be lifted into orbit on one launch. Assembly has to happen in pieces, and the pieces—usually tubes with airlocks at both ends, called modules—have to be fitted together.
Nonetheless, some form of orbiting space station has long been a goal for both the United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia). The earliest Soviet version was put into orbit in 1971. It was called Salyut.
Salyut
Salyut was another early and amazing Soviet achievement. The Salyut space station was launched in 1971, some 2 years before America’s Skylab. To make Salyut operational, the space station had to be put into orbit, and a ferry (shuttle) system had to be designed to get cosmonAuts and supplies to and from the station.
cosmonAut A Russian space person.
docking stAtion A place on the side of a spacecraft that contains some form of anchoring mechanism and an airlock.
module A section, or part, of a space vehicle. spAce stAtion A large man-made satellite
used as a base for operations in space.
 Skylab seen over the Amazon basin, Brazil.
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