I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.

—President Ronald Reagan, January 25, 1984

A space station is an orbiting structure designed to accommodate visiting crewmembers for an extended period of time. In 1984 the U.S. government envisioned building a continuously manned space station in which scientists would conduct long-term research in a micro-gravity environment. The station was to be large and spacious, with room for up to ten crewmembers at a time. The U.S. space shuttle was going to be the workhorse that carried cargo and astronauts to the station and back on a routine basis.

To save money on this expensive undertaking, the U.S. invited other countries to participate. Eventually fifteen countries did so, including Russia, which assumed a major role in the project. The space station became an international...