Last October the International Space Station marked its tenth year of uninterrupted occupancy. Before the ISS there was Mir, which was continuously inhabited for nearly a decade (plus three shorter spells), and before Mir the Salyuts, and Skylab, though many of these earlier space stations were empty as often as they were inhabited. It's now unusual for there to be no one in space. Here are the times in the past quarter century when there have been no astronauts or cosmonauts in orbit:
October 24 to October 31, 2000. STS-92 (Space Shuttle Discovery) landed October 24 after having delivered the Z1 Truss to the ISS. A week later Soyuz TM-31 launched with the three members of the space station's Expedition 1 aboard, beginning the current streak of orbital habitation.
September 19 to October 11, 2000. STS-106 (Atlantis) landed September 19 after a supply trip to the ISS. STS-92 launched October 11.
June 16 to September 8, 2000. TM-30 deorbited June 16 carrying the last Mir crew. STS-106 launched September 8.
February 22 to April 4, 2000. STS-99 (Endeavour) landed February 22 after a non-ISS-related trip. TM-30 launched April 4 carrying the final Mir crew.
December 27, 1999 to February 11, 2000. STS-103 (Discovery) landed after servicing the Hubble Telescope. STS-99 launched February 11.
August 28 to December 19, 1999. Soyuz TM-29 deorbited August 28, closing a nine-year-eleven-month stretch of habitation on Mir. STS-103 launched December 19.
August 13 to September 5, 1989. STS-28 (Columbia) landed August 13. Soyuz TM-8 launched September 5.
May 8 to August 8, 1989. STS-30 (Atlantis) landed May 8. STS-28 launched August 8.
April 27, 1989 to May 4, 1989. Soyuz TM-7 deorbited, leaving Mir uninhabited for a little over four months. STS-30 launched May 4.
July 16, 1986 to February 5, 1987. Soyuz T-15 deorbited July 16, 1986, after visiting both Mir and Salyut 7. Soyuz TM-2 launched to Mir February 5, 1987.
January 18 to March 13, 1986. STS-61-C (Columbia) landed January 18. On March 13 Soyuz T-15 took off. The Challenger disaster occurred in the middle of this gap, on January 28.
It adds up to about a year and ten months. The two bunches of gaps occurred while Salyut 7 was being phased out and Mir phased in, and later when the International Space Station was replacing Mir. Current plans are to use the ISS until about 2020, so the present streak could stretch to twenty years. D
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