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Article: International Space Station
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- Space Sciences
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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International Space Station
There have long been dreams of a permanently inhabited base or station in space. In 1957 it first became possible to put human-made objects into
orbit
around Earth. But while both the United States and the Soviet Union raced to send a man to the Moon in the 1960s, the goal of a space station in orbit was secondary. It was after the United States won that "space race" in 1969 that both spacefaring countries sought new directions for their human spaceflight programs.
Previous Space Stations
Shortly before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the first Moon mission, the agency began focused design work on
America's first orbiting ...