A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. Space stations have

harboured so far the only long-duration direct human presence in space. After the first

station Salvut 1 (1971) and its tragic Sovuz 11 crew, space stations have been operated

consecutively since Skylab (1973), having allowed a progression of long-duration direct human

presence in space. Stations have been occupied by consecutive crews since 1987 with the Salvut successor Mir. Uninterrupted occupation of stations has been achieved since the operational transition from the Mir to the ISS, with its first occupation in 2000. The ISS has hosted the highest number of people in orbit at the same time, reaching 13 for the first time during the eleven day docking of STS-127 in 2009.