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. 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 spacecraft, so they went back home without ever actually entering the station. Another crew launched two months later, and after a successful docking, they spent 23 days aboard the station.
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. 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 spacecraft, so they went back home without ever actually entering the station. Another crew launched two months later, and after a successful docking, they spent 23 days aboard the station.
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00:00On this day in space.
00:04On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the world's first space station, Salyut 1.
00:10This space station was a modified version of the Soviet Union's Almaz space station,
00:14which was part of a highly classified military program and was still under development at the time.
00:18After NASA managed to put astronauts on the moon,
00:21the Soviet Union decided that its next big feat in the space race would be to put a crewed space station in orbit.
00:26The first crew to visit Salyut 1 in orbit launched just four days after the space station did.
00:31However, that crew had some technical problems while trying to dock with the space station in their Soyuz spacecraft,
00:36so they went back home without ever actually entering the station.
00:39Another crew launched two months later, and after a successful docking, they spent 23 days aboard the station.
00:45And that's what happened on this day in space.