Orbital Piloted Stations (OPS)
Three Almaz OPS space stations were flown from 1973 to 1976 in the Salyut programme: Salyut 2 (OPS-1), Salyut 3 (OPS-2) and Salyut 5 (OPS-3). Five crewed Soyuz expeditions were flown to the Almaz space stations Salyut 3 and Salyut 5, with three reaching their stations and only two of the missions being considered fully successful at that time – the three crews that had reached their stations had manned Almaz stations for a total of 81 days when the program was ended.
Besides the three flown space stations OPS-1 to OPS-3, seven more spaceframes of Almaz space stations had been build when the program was cancelled: OPS-4, Almaz-205, Almaz-206, Almaz-T, Almaz-T2 (Kosmos 1870), Almaz-1 and Almaz-2 – with Almaz-T2 and Almaz-1 having successfully flown as repurposed unmanned radar-carrying reconnaissance satellites (see below). The partially outfitted hulls of Almaz-205 and Almaz-206 are today in the property of Excalibur Almaz, a company which had stated to have plans to launch these as manned space stations (see below).
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Famous quotes containing the word stations:
“I can’t quite define my aversion to asking questions of strangers. From snatches of family battles which I have heard drifting up from railway stations and street corners, I gather that there are a great many men who share my dislike for it, as well as an equal number of women who ... believe it to be the solution to most of this world’s problems.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)