What is your favorite space station. Why?

[awsomejwags]

There is a poll it is optional

[astropapi1]

It has to be Skylab. It taught NASA so much about living in space... Let's just go over some little facts:

- It was the first ever Dry Workshop. A converted rocket stage, basically.

- It had lots of interior space, and I mean it. They tested jetpacks inside the station.

- One solar "wing" fell off during launch, so the first Skylab crew had to repair it, and paste a giant aluminium foil square on it's side to prevent it from overheating.

Skylab was the little station that could.

[mrfox]

Almaz.

Why?

5 words-

Self defense rapid fire cannon

[awsomejwags]

Ah yes that was the one with the gun

[Dispatcher]

I voted for Other. Space Station V, seen in "2001 ...". To me its the station that should have been, and could have been; it is symbolic of artificial gravity constructs envisioned by Von Braun and others and is a more "elegant" solution than the ISS.

Of course we need the Pan Am Space Clipper too.

[xenomorph555]

The salyut series, they were the first yet had some epic look to them, they taught humanity a lot about spacestations, science and were very efficient. Salyut 7 (may favourite) not only looked cool but paved the way for multi-modular stations like Mir and ISS.

[Ikaneko]

Skylab. Anything that is made from Saturn V is superlative.

Also, I know the person who provided technical drawings for it! (seriously, no joke)

[xenomorph555]

In my opinion skylab was INCREDIBLY underused, The first 3 crews went very well getting a lot of time on the station and nasa were preparing lots of big upgrades to it. But what did it do, sit in orbit uninhabited for 5 years and accidentally fell on Australia all because they chose to create the flying brick instead of a good old capsule spacecraft, also never fully resupplied it which could have led to mega expeditions. It's legacy could have been on par with the moon missions... sad

[Javster]

Skylab SERIES? AFAIK it was a single station.

I've also been in a real Mir prototype.

[szputnyik]

Mir. It was the first modular space station, and from videos and picture I've seen of it, it had a really good "house in space" homely atmosphere to it, rather than the more technical and strict-looking ISS. It would've had an interesting future in bringing space travel closer to the masses, had it not been de-orbited: One company was interested in converting it into a film studio, an other one wanted to convert it into a space hotel.

From existing space stations, my favorite is Tiangong, and I have high hopes for future Chinese stations. Knowing China's heavily capitalistic economy, and determination to quickly advance in space, the Chinese space program could be the one, that will open space travel to wider audiences in the future.

[xenomorph555]

Mir. It was the first modular space station, and from videos and picture I've seen of it, it had a really good "house in space" homely atmosphere to it, rather than the more technical and strict-looking ISS. It would've had an interesting future in bringing space travel closer to the masses, had it not been de-orbited: One company was interested in converting it into a film studio, an other one wanted to convert it into a space hotel.

From existing space stations, my favorite is Tiangong, and I have high hopes for future Chinese stations. Knowing China's heavily capitalistic economy, and determination to quickly advance in space, the Chinese space program could be the one, that will open space travel to wider audiences in the future.

I agree and technically mir still is up the, if you have ever seen a video of the russian segment of the iss (very rare) then you will see it's basically a larger more advanced mir

since most modules were for mir-2 but got recycled, so the great mir still lives on , however it did need to come down due to becoming old and dangerous.

I also have high hopes for the future chinese stations, mix of russian station style (dimmer, smaller, cosy) and american (very bright, sterile, very large, slightly unfriendly).

[Tex]

I'd say Skylab because it would be THE station I'd want to visit if I ever had the chance to. They had so much room to play in... Have you seen that video clip where the astronauts are flipping and screwing around?

Poor quality...

[Transits]

ISS - It has some very interesting modules all from different countries which help a lot. It is very large and can be seen from space. And it is easily reachable for poorer/non-spacefaring countries.

Although I do like the Saylut space stations mainly because of their boosters which allow navigation in space.

[RuBisCO]

Skylab. We could have made an ISS out of less then 5 Skylabs. Skylab represent what we could have done with the Saturn SERIES of rockets, decades before ISS for a fraction of the price. Imagine had they stayed with the Saturn and after SkyLab as a proving ground they could have eventually launched a 100+ ton, 10 meter wide, wet-lab station made out of S-II and a Skylab upper module (its self a empty S-IVB).

[cziken20]

International space station. But not because it's pretty or something, it's the first station where americans worked together with russians.

[78stonewobble]

I voted for Other. Space Station V, seen in "2001 ...". To me its the station that should have been, and could have been; it is symbolic of artificial gravity constructs envisioned by Von Braun and others and is a more "elegant" solution than the ISS.

Of course we need the Pan Am Space Clipper too.

A little side question here... It's been quite a few years since I've seen 2001. Those "dock's" (more so than docking ports) are they also in a vacuum or? Because there is people moving around in side areas and I couldn't quite see if there's supposed to be glass in front. Or is the whole thing using a big ass plasma window or similar thing?

[MK3424]

Obvious, look at my profile pic.

I like the MIR because of it's complexity and the first station to dock multiple modules.

Yes it isn't the best looking or the most spacious one, but everyone said it was their home.

[@:-)]

MIR!!!, Skylab makes no sense, just 3 missions.............................

[Dispatcher]

A little side question here... It's been quite a few years since I've seen 2001. Those "dock's" (more so than docking ports) are they also in a vacuum or? Because there is people moving around in side areas and I couldn't quite see if there's supposed to be glass in front. Or is the whole thing using a big ass plasma window or similar thing?

I think the landing bay is open to vacuum, even though its reminiscent of the Star Wars Death Star landing bays when viewed from inside. "2001" was supposed to be predictive from a 1960's point of view, so I'd guess that would preclude force fields. The people are behind transparent walls or windows. We never see the plane's occupants transition from the plane to the station. Similar windows are seen at the moon base.

As to the OP, to me the most interesting real life station so far is the ISS in terms of overall size; and I like the viewing cupola.

[TerLoki]

ISS. The biggest and most advanced station built to date, AND a symbol of international cooperation in science and space exploration, which is how things should be.

[Rickenbacker]

Isn't a converted fuel tank a "wet workshop"? Anyway, yes, Skylab was magnificent, the ISS is a great achievement, but I pick Salyut because some of them had friggin automatic cannon on them! What they were going to shoot at, I have no idea.

[RuBisCO]

Dry Lab: Space station habitat space that never was filled with fuel, regardless if the structure was manufactured to be a fuel tank.

Wet Lab: Space station habitat space that was filled with fuel.

[Skyrunner27]

International space station. But not because it's pretty or something, it's the first station where americans worked together with russians.

this was a thing. I mean the ISS was still the first large scale use of parts from around the world being on the same spacecraft. The Shuttle-Mir being the testing grounds for this.

[deadshot462]

Skylab, mostly because of the big space it had inside. You could actually fly around from one side to the other, or run around the edge. Private companies need to make another such station for space tourists.