How To Supply a Space Station

For decades unmanned spacecraft have been taking cargo to space stations to support their crews. Here I look at some of the history of such missions, and how future stations may be supplied.

When Salyut 6 launched in 1977, it had a novel feature that none of the previous five Soviet space stations possessed. On the rear end of the station it had a second docking port, which allowed other spacecraft to visit whilst a Soyuz capsule was docked. Previous stations had simply been abandoned when the supplies they had launched with ran out. Salyut…