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NASA's 40th Anniversary: Early Rocket Pioneers' Dreams of Space Station Soon to be Realized

In 1869, American fiction writer Edward Everett Hale wrote about a "Brick Moon" that could be used as a navigational aid for ships, a job unmanned space satellites do today. Inspired by fictional creations, scientists and engineers began to plan space habitats. In 1923, German physicist Hermann Oberth wrote The Rocket Into Planetary Space and coined the term "space station."

Von Braun's "wheel" station is depicted here in a concept by renowned artist Chesley Bonestell. The station, along with a space telescope, space taxi, and reusable shuttle vehicle, are shown orbiting 1,075 miles above Central America. The original painting, commissioned for von Braun's Collier's article, is part of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's Ordway Collection in Huntsville, Ala.

Skylab, America's first space station, was conceived at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. In 1973-74, it served as an orbiting laboratory for research in several disciplines: solar physics, astronomy, biomedical science and materials science. The wealth of information obtained with Skylab helped pave the way for research aboard the International Space Station.

The Shuttle-borne Spacelab module served as a versatile laboratory for scientific research in space from 1981 to 1998. The project, a joint effort of NASA and the European Space Agency helped us learn the value of using trained crew members to perform research in orbit.

Unity, a 15-foot-diameter, 18-foot-long node, is one of three hubs that will eventually connect to Space Station modules, berthing ports and airlocks. Space Station prime contractor, Boeing, manufactured the node in a facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Unity was shipped from Marshall to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in June 1997 for final testing and launch preparation. The node will be the first U.S.-built component of the Space Station to be placed in orbit.

The Space Shuttle and other launch vehicles will carry components of the International Space Station into orbit where they will be assembled over a five-year period. The final Space Station, depicted in this artist's concept, will span 356 by 290 feet -- about the size of a football field -- weigh 470 tons and be visible to the naked eye from Earth.

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