The Death Star, officially called the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station, is a piece of fiction (so far) which appeared in the Star Wars movies.

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Despite the initiative's youth, Buckley said the CIHR is excited about gaining more access to the station's orbital laboratory, where health research is performed by space residents.

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In its Wednesday review, Russian officials said they expect to decide whether to delay the launch by 10 hours to put it in the same orbital plane as the new station.

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In 2008, NASA awarded contracts to deliver cargo to the International Space Station to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation.

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The Skylab program (1973-79), established our first true space station and demonstrated human abilities to adapt and undertake productive work under orbital weightless conditions.

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The first orbital voter was astronaut David Wolf in 1997 while he was on board the Mir Space Station.

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This includes a completely different propulsion system, larger solar panels, and also the orbital module (which is designed to function on its own, as a sort of space station, for six to eight months).

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While the Air Force has stated that the vehicle is meant only for conducting orbital science experiments, analysts say the X-37B is capable of much more, and could perform additional tasks such as acting as an orbital spy, sneaking up on and tampering with enemy satellites or hauling small batches of supplies to the International Space Station.

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