On This Day In Space! April 19, 1971: World’s 1st Space Station Launches into Orbit [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

On This Day In Space! April 19, 1971: World’s 1st Space Station Launches into Orbit [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Welcome to “On This Day … in Space!” where we peer back in our archives to find historic moments in spaceflight and astronomy. So enjoy a blast from the past with Space.com’s Hanneke Weitering to look back at what happened on this day in space!

On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first space station, Salyut 1.

This space station was a modified version of the Soviet Union’s Almaz space station, which was part of a highly classified military program and was still under development at the time. After NASA managed to put astronauts on the moon, the Soviet Union decided that its next big feat in the Space Race would be to put a crewed space station in orbit.

Space Station Evolution: 6 Amazing Orbital Outposts

The first crew to visit Salyut 1 in orbit launched just four days after the space station did. However, that crew had some technical problems while trying to dock with the space station in their Soyuz 10 spacecraft, so they went back home without ever actually entering the station. Another crew launched two months later on the Soyuz 11 mission, and after a successful docking, they spent 23 days aboard the station. However, during the Soyuz 11 crew’s return to Earth, a pressure valve on their spacecraft opened early during their descent. The three crewmembers – Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Vokov, and Viktor Patsaye – died during re-entry as a result. 

Salyut 1 remained in orbit until Oct. 11, 1971, when flight controllers commanded the station’s engines to fire and intentionally crash it into the Pacific Ocean. The world’s first space station spent 175 days in orbit during its mission lifetime. 

Salyut 1: The First Space Station

Top 10 Soviet and Russian Space Missions

Our 10 Favorite Sci-Fi Space Stations of All Time

Catch up on our entire “On This Day In Space” series on YouTube with the playlist here.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. 

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[bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]On This Day In Space! April 19, 1971: World’s 1st Space Station Launches into Orbit