In the late 60s and 70s, while the United States was landing astronauts on the Moon, Soviet engineers and industry leaders were turning their attention to a new initiative that would enable long-duration missions and enhance the quality of human spaceflight.

Vladimir Chelomei, who led the Soviet space industry into the early developmental stages of the first space station, envisioned the concept of a near-Earth orbiting outpost. At the outset, the station would exist to support the military.

But the space station idea grew into something more complex -- a floating space base where research could be done inside and outside the station complex. This would open the door to scientific experiments that could lead to humans living in space.

Salyut 1 -- the world's first space station -- launched on April 19, 1971. The three-man crew flying the Soyuz 11 spacecraft rendezvoused with the station six weeks after its launch. But when the Soyuz tried to dock with Salyut 1, a critical docking mechanism failed. As a result, the first Salyut crew -- Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Eliseev and Nikolai Rukavishnikov -- never actually entered the space station.

The Soyuz 11 cosmonauts were still able to conduct numerous medical experiments, as well as other research in astrophysics, Earth science, biology and radiation.

Though it was a terrible beginning for the Salyut program, it did not end this ambitious Russian initiative. The Salyut program enjoyed great success through the early 1980s. Ultimately, the Salyut program led the way to the creation of Russia's Mir space station.