The first American space station was Skylab in 1973. It was built using Apollo hardware and launched on a Saturn rocket. Three crews, named Skylab II, III and IV, visited in 1973 and 1974.
The former Soviet Union has built three generations of space stations. The current station is named Mir, the Russian word for peace. It will host an American astronaut for 90 days in 1995, after which the U.S. Space Shuttle will dock with the Mir to retrieve the astronaut. The Shuttle also will deliver a fresh Russian crew to relieve the cosmonauts on duty.
NASA plans to build a permanent U.S. space station in orbit, to completed by late 1999 or sometime the next century. Called Freedom, the space station initially will house four astronauts from the United States, Europe and Japan.
Two companies have plans for private space stations or space facilities using the empty external tanks of the Space Shuttle.
For a complete look at potential space stations, see the upcoming LunaCorp/Multicom compact disk titled "The Future of Space Exploration."
