INSTANT EXPERT - HOW MANY TYPES OF SPACE STATION ARE THERE?

The ISS is the largest and best-known space station, but it is not the first or the last in space

The first description of a space station appeared in a short story, The Brick Moon, written in 1869 by American author Edward Everett Hale. It is also thought to be the first description of an artificial satellite, and satellite navigation, as a 61-meter (200-foot) wide brick sphere is launched into orbit as a navigational aid. However, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky carried out the first scientific work on space stations in the early 20th century. Slovenian scientist Herman Potočnik then put forward the classic rotating ring-shaped design in his 1929 book, The Problem Of Space Travel. Ultimately, it would be the USSR that launched the first real space station, which was Salyut 1 in 1971.