Salyut programme

The Salyut programme was the first space station programme, led by the Soviet Union. It included a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed military reconnaissance space stations, running from 1971 to 1986. The programme aimed to study living in space and conduct experiments in astronomy, biology, and Earth resources. Sadly, two Salyut launches did not succeed.

Salyut flights set many spaceflight records, such as mission-duration records, and achieved the first orbital handover of a space station from one crew to another. The programme helped develop space station technology from simple designs to more complex ones. The knowledge gained from Salyut stations helped create larger space stations like Mir and the International Space Station (ISS).

The last spacecraft from the Salyut series, Mir-2 (DOS-8), became one of the first modules of the ISS. The first ISS module, the Russian-made Zarya, used many technologies developed during the Salyut programme.

History of Salyut space stations

The Salyut programme was the first space station programme, led by the Soviet Union. It included several crewed scientific research space stations and two military reconnaissance stations over 15 years, from 1971 to 1986.

The programme had two types of space station cores: DOS (Durable Orbital Station) civilian stations and OPS (Orbital Piloted Station) military stations. The DOS stations were designed by Sergei Korolev’s team, while the OPS stations were military designs. The DOS stations were built to be finished faster and within one year of the Almaz military stations. The first DOS-based station, Salyut 1, launched in 1971, became the world’s first space station, two years before America’s Skylab.

Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 were very important. They had two docking ports, allowing two Soyuz spacecraft to visit at the same time. This made it possible to change crews and bring supplies continuously, leading to the first permanent occupation of space stations. The Salyut programme’s ideas lived on in the Mir space station and the International Space Station, with modules like Zvezda coming from the DOS designs.

Data table

The early Salyut space stations didn't have many spacecraft visiting them. But the later stations, Salyut 6 and Salyut 7, had many spacecraft coming to meet them. These included both people in spacecraft and uncrewed supply ships. The table below counts only the spacecraft that actually reached their target space station, whether they managed to dock or not.