In the 1970s, the Soviets designed a military space station called Almaz. Under the guise of the non-mThe military program operated briefly, and two stations—called Salyut 3 and Salyut 5—were tested and used. Then, in 1978, the Soviets abandoned the program, deciding that unmanned satellites were more cost-efficient spies than manned space stations.
Now, a private [...]

We’ve seen space stations before. The old Soviet Union got the ball rolling in early 1970s with the first—the Salyut space stations. Next, America launched Skylab, which remains to this day the single largest “room” ever in space. (It was created from a hollowed-out stage of a Saturn rocket.)
The Soviets produced Mir, a multi-module space [...]

Not many people know that the Soviets launched military space stations. There were 3 such stations, secretly called Alamaz, but publicly referred to as Salyut—the name the Soviets gave to their non-military space stations.
The Last Military Space Station
Yuri Glazkov, who died today at 69, was a crew members of the last mission to the last [...]

For a short period of time, in 1986, the Soviet Union had two space stations. The older Salyut-7 station was nearing retirement, to be replaced by the new Mir station.
The Soviets were anxious to put a crew aboard Mir…but they weren’t yet done with Salyut-7. So mission planners came up with an ambitious idea.
The Mission
Cosmonauts [...]

The first space walk—by Alexi Leonov in March 1965—and the first American space walk, by Ed White a few months later are pretty well-known. They’re firsts, and people were paying attention. But some amazing space walks are largely forgotten. Here are 3.
1. Al Worden takes a deep space walk. August 1971.
Well, since his crew mates [...]