Space stations and their modules

Two stations are crewed in orbit: the International Space Station, about 400 km up, which can have eight spaceships connected at once and a crew of seven, and Tiangong, China's station of three modules, with five docking ports and a crew of three. Each was built in orbit from modules launched one at a time, and the catalogue still tracks some of them as objects of their own, though they fly joined together: they are listed after their station, in the order they went up, each with the day it was launched and who flies it, as GCAT records them. Who is aboard each station, and the flight that brought them, is on the station's page.

  1. International Space StationSpace stationOperating

    In orbit since 20 November 1998 and crewed without a break since 2 November 2000; 109 m across its solar arrays, with up to seven aboard.

  2. UnityOperating

    A module of the International Space Station, launched on 4 December 1998 and flown by NASA Johnson Space Flight Center (GCAT).

  3. ZvezdaOperating

    A module of the International Space Station, launched on 12 July 2000 and flown by RKK Energiya (GCAT).

  4. DestinyOperating

    A module of the International Space Station, launched on 7 February 2001 and flown by NASA Johnson Space Flight Center (GCAT).

  5. PoiskOperating

    A module of the International Space Station, launched on 10 November 2009 and flown by RKK Energiya (GCAT).

  6. NaukaOperating

    A module of the International Space Station, launched on 21 July 2021 and flown by RKK Energiya (GCAT).

  7. Tiangong Space StationSpace stationOperating

    Its core module launched on 29 April 2021; complete with three modules since 3 November 2022, a crew of three aboard since June 2022, and about 100 tonnes.

  8. WentianOperating

    A module of Tiangong, launched on 24 July 2022 and flown by the China Manned Space Engineering Office (GCAT).

  9. MengtianOperating

    A module of Tiangong, launched on 31 October 2022 and flown by the China Manned Space Engineering Office (GCAT).

Whether each one is operating was read from the catalogue on Nov 9, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC. The names and facts of the satellites Orbinauts has not written about are GCAT’s, and so is whether a satellite is operating, except where Orbinauts writes when its mission ended. GCAT is Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0.