Space research days in the space station, but this achievement was quickly overshadowed since the crew died on reentry to Earth. Salyut 1 was intentionally deorbited six months into orbit since it prematurely ran out of fuel. Skylab was the first American space station. It was 4 times larger than Salut 1. Skylab was launched in May 19, 1973. It rotated through three crews of three during its operational time. Skylab’s experiments confirmed coronal holes and were able to photograph eight solar flares. From 1986 to 2001, Russian space station Mir served as a permanent microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted
Space logistics significant focus of space logistics is on "upmass", or payload mass carried up to orbit from Earth, space station operations also have significant downmass requirements. Returning cargo from low-Earth orbit to Earth is known as transporting "downmass", the total logistics payload mass that is returned from space to the surface of the Earth for subsequent use or analysis. Downmass logistics are important aspects of research and manufacturing work that occurs in orbital space facilities. For the International Space Station, there have been periods of time when downmass capability was severely restricted. For example, for approximately ten months from the time