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
Bigelow Commercial Space Station was formed in 1999. By 2004, plans made public included assembly of multiple modules "into a manned space facility in low Earth orbit for both and funded research and for space tourism." Two more formal concepts have since been made public. By 2005, Bigelow space station plans had been further conceptualized into "Commercial Space Station Skywalker", or CSS Skywalker. In mid-2010, Bigelow announced their "Next-Generation Commercial Space Station"—later named "Space Complex Alpha". The initial dates for the Alpha complex were not achieved. In January 2013, the Alpha complex was specified to be an in-space assemblage of only two B330 modules,