Salyut 1 was the very first space station ever sent into space. It was launched into orbit in April 1971 by the Soviet Union and stayed in space until October 1971. During its time in space, it was visited by two spacecraft with crews. The purpose of Salyut 1 was to learn and test how a space station worked. A second goal was to find out how being in space a long time effected the human body. It had a number of problems but a lot was learned from it that helped with future stations. 