We regret to inform you that HeinOnline contains no documents providing evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial alien life. We do, however, have an extensive collection of material on human life in space. Keep reading as we use HeinOnline to learn more about the history and future of space stations!

Salyut and Skylab

Space stations were first imagined in literature over a century before one was actually put into orbit, beginning with Edward Everett Hale’s novella “The Brick Moon,” published in 1869, which imagined human beings being accidentally launched into orbit inside a 200-foot brick sphere. By the twentieth century, artificial habitats, increasingly referred to as “space stations,” had become mainstays of the growing narrative genre of science fiction. As early as the 1950s, American defense contractors floated more serious proposals for orbiting space stations, such as the “Atlas space station,”^[1]Legislative History of the National Aeronautics and Space Act 1958 : P.L. 85-568 : 72 Stat. 426 : July 29, 1958. (1958). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. which would be built in the repurposed hollowed-out chassis of an intercontinental ballistic missile. These designs never made it past the discussion phase and it would not be until the 1970s that humans would place a permanent space station in orbit around the Earth. And it would be the Soviet Union, not the United States, to do so.

On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched Salyut,^[3]8 U.N. Monthly Chron. 88 (May 1971). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s United Nations Law Collection. the first space station. Over the course of the next fifteen years, a series of Salyut stations would host dozens of cosmonauts who conducted the first-ever experiments in a microgravity laboratory. In a sense, the cosmonauts themselves could be said to be experiments, as the effects of long-term residence in space on the human body were unknown. Many of the protocols that would ensure the health and safety of future generations of astronauts and cosmonauts were developed during the fifteen years of the Salyut program.

The Space Race was an interesting affair, driven by the often contrasting principles of scientific cooperation and nationalistic military competition. American and Soviet scientists and engineers frequently collaborated and shared their findings with each other, and spacecraft from the competing nations engaged in frequent orbital rendevous,^[4]Manned Space flight, U.S.-Soviet rendezvous and docking. Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session. May 31, 1972. This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. practicing docking procedures and occasionally exchanging personnel for visits. At the same time, a number of subsequent Salyut missions were later revealed to be serving as cover for secretive military experiments, referred to as the Almaz program,^[5]Soviet Space Programs: 1976-80 (1982). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. in which the Soviets deployed the first armed military spacecraft into orbit. The United States likewise deployed highly secretive military missions, often under the guise of civilian scientific research, such as the Air Force’s Manned Orbital Laboratory^[6]Courtney V. K. Homer. Spies in Space: Reflections on National Reconnaissance and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (2019). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. surveillance program.

Concerns over secretive military programs, as well as national pride, led the United States to launch its own manned space station, Skylab.^[8]Skylab. Hearing, Ninety-third Congress, first session … May 23 [and July 30] 1973. in 1973. This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. However, the Skylab program proved to be short-lived, with crewed missions ceasing by the end of 1974. The program drew the ire of legislators^[9]Skylab 1 investigation report. Hearing, Ninety-third Congress, first session. August 1, 1973. This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. for its high costs, and questions were raised as to its scientific usefulness, particularly as NASA pivoted its attention away from permanent crewed habitats and toward the development of the Space Shuttle program. The Skylab mission came to an end in 1979, when NASA brought the station down to Earth^[10]NASA Skylab reentry: hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, June 4, 1979. This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. in a controlled reentry.

While NASA was moving away from permanently crewed habitats, the Soviets were embarking on an ambitious new space station program to replace the Salyut project. In 1986, they launched Mir, the first-ever space station to employ modular design principles that are now standard practice, and the first to be assembled in orbit. However, only five years into the Mir program, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Cosmonauts aboard the station in 1991 faced the strange situation of flying up to orbit as citizens of the Soviet Union, and flying back down to Earth as citizens of a new country, the Russian Federation. This geopolitical transformation would usher in a new era of cooperation between American and Russian scientists, in which Mir would play an essential role.

The Birth of the International Space Station

The end of the Soviet Union brought about the end of the Soviet space program, and nearly the end of the Russian space program which followed it, with drastic cuts in funding and loss of resources^[11]Mahulena Hoskova, 1994 Baikonur Agreements in Operation, The, 42 Proc. on L. Outer Space 263 (1999). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s Air and Space Law collection. plaguing the program in the 1990s. But Russian scientists had a deep reservoir of experience that was a valuable resource in itself. Compared to the Americans, whose only experience in maintaining orbital habitats was the brief Skylab program in the 1970s, Russian engineers had accumulated decades of experience and technical knowledge in sustaining human life and scientific experimentation in space, and were capable of doing so with extremely limited resources. American engineers and policy makers recognized ^[12]H.R. 1883, the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 1999 : hearing before the Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress, first session, July 13, 1999. This document can be found in … Continue reading this expertise and, in 1993, the Americans formally invited the Russian space program to participate in the construction of the International Space Station, alongside NASA and the space agencies of Europe, Canada, and Japan.

Partnering with the Americans provided an opportunity for Roscosmos (the Russian space agency) to benefit from the greater resources available to the United States; while the United States benefitted from the Russians’ accumulated decades of knowledge in the construction and maintenance of space stations. This cooperation was exemplified in the Shuttle-Mir program^[13]Current Documents, 22 J. SPACE L. 175 (1994). This article can be found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. in the 1990s, which saw American space shuttles dock with the Mir space station multiple times, bringing equipment, supplies, and American researchers aboard.

Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency had been skeptical of previous American attempts at constructing a space station in the 1980s, fearing that the Reagan Administration would use the station for military purposes,^[14]Review of Current Issues concerning the Military Uses of Outer Space (1987). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s McGill Institute of Air and Space Law Publications. possibly as part of its proposed “Star Wars” missile defense initative. The inclusion of the Americans’ principal geopolitical rival in the space station project did much to allay the fears of policymakers in Canada, Europe, and Japan. In Washington, D.C. in 1998, representatives from the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe, and Japan signed the Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement^[15]TIAS 12927. Multilateral. Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement. January 29, 1998. This treaty can be found in HeiOnline’s U.S. Treaties & Agreements Library. commiting to cooperate in the construction and operation of a “permanently inhabited civil international Space Station.” Although the treaty was theortically one signed amongst equals, its language subordinates non-American signatories to junior roles, assigning them the responsiblity for “supporting the United States in the performance of its responsibilities.”^[16]TIAS 12927. Multilateral. Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement. January 29, 1998. This treaty can be found in HeiOnline’s U.S. Treaties & Agreements Library.

Construction of the station got underway shortly after the treaty’s signing, with the launch of the first Russian-constructed capsule into space in November 2000. Capsules constructed by the other signatories followed, each being constructed on the ground and then attached to the other modules composing the station after being launched into orbit. By the time of Mir‘s final days in orbit, the International Space Station had succeeded the older Russian station as the largest human-made object to ever be put in orbit around the Earth.

Free Taco Here: The Life and Death of Mir

It is a testament to the skill of Russian engineers and scientists that they were able to keep Mir intact and in orbit for more than a decade following the fall of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, by the late 1990s, Mir was beginning to grow a little rough around the edges. One American astronaut, C. Michael Foale, who spent time aboard Mir in 1997 described it as “a bit like a frat house, but more organized and better looked after.” Seven days after Foale departed Mir, the station collided with a Russian space freighter during docking procedures, resulting in a persistent oxygen leak that cosmonauts struggled to repair for years. The station also struggled with populations of bacteria, which colonized free-floating globes of water hidden in tangles of wire behind instrument panels. The living quarters, by all accounts, had a unique smell.

By 2000, conditions on Mir had deteriorated to the point where the cost of maintaining its orbit became untenable. Moreover, much to the chagrin of Americans, the cost of of maintaing Mir was diverting Roscosmos from its work on the ISS, and causing delays in the planned assembly of new station modules. Russia made a plan to deorbit the space station, in what was essentially a controlled crash landing in the Pacific Ocean.

The event was a media sensation, and captured the imagination of the global public. Taco Bell floated a 40 foot by 40 foot target in the South Pacific Ocean, labelled “Free Taco Here,” and promised one free taco to every person in the United States if a piece of Mir landed on the target. Although the chances of an impact were minuscle, Taco Bell nevertheless took out a $10 million insurance policy^[17]Legal job is odds-on fun. 65 TEX. B.J. 791 (October 2002). This article can be found in HeinOnline’s Bar Journals Library. to cover the costs of one free taco for every American adult. In March 2001, Mir was safely deorbited into the Pacific Ocean, missing its target, and depriving millions of people of free tacos.

The Future of Life in Space

Although Mir became something of a punchline in its later years, its legacy to science is immeasurable. The space station was the first continuously inhabited long-term structure in space, and it still holds the record for the longest stay in space by an individual human. Thousands of experiments were conducted in its laboratories. Equally important, it forged an international community of scientists and engineers dedicated to furthering human knowledge for the benefit of all, even across at-times fraught geopolitical rivalries.

Although tense at times, the partnerships forged aboard Mir lived on aboard the International Space Station, enduring the tumultuous international events of the early twenty-first century, and weathering global tensions exacerbated by American-led wars in the Middle East and resurgent Russian nationalism^[18]Thomas F. III, Editor Lynch. Strategic Assessment 2020: Into a New Era of Great Power Competition (2020). This document can be found in HeinOnline’s National Defense University Press Publications subcollection. under the regime of Vladimir Putin. However, fractures in the arrangement have deepened in recent years, particularlu after the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the wake of the invasion, Russia announced its intention to withdraw from cooperation on the International Space Station,^[19]Mark J. Sundahl, The Artemis Theory of Warfare, 29 BROWN J. WORLD AFF. 107 (Fall/Winter 2022). This article can be found in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library. and construct its own space station in 2028.

The United States currently plans to maintain a level of support for the International Space Station^[20]NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2019. This document can be found in HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Serial Set. that will enable it to continue its mission until September 2030. However, even without the open question of Russia’s participation in the program, the future of American-led space stations is in doubt, as there is no current plan in place for a replacement for the International Space Station. This does not mean that human inhabitation of space is likely to end anytime soon, though. The field of space-travelling nations has expanded in recent years, with China establishing its own permanently inhabited space station Tiangong^[21]Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung, Did Exclusion Ignite China’s Drive to Compete in Space Station Technology? An Analysis of the Techno-Legal Implications of the Wolf Amendment (2011), 2022 U. ILL. J.L. TECH. & POL’y 119 (2022). This article … Continue reading in 2021. With India developing its own crewed spaceflight program, in the hopes of becoming the fourth country to place human beings in orbit, the future of life in space looks increasingly diverse and multipolar.

Further Reading

Interested in reading more about space? HeinOnline has two collections that contain extensive content related to the legal, social, and political aspects of space travel. The Air and Space Law Collection contains a collection of books, documents, reports, and more illustrating the multitude of ways humans interact with and explore the earthly skies and distant reaches of outer space. We also host the MicGill Institute of Air and Space Law Publications, which includes the Annals of Air and Space Law, a publication devoted to fostering the free exchange of ideas and information pertaining to the law applicable to aerospace activities.