The Soviets won the race to place the first space station in orbit. On April 19, 1971, they launched Salyut 1. Two years later, on May 14, 1973, America responded by launching Skylab. Both space stations shared the modest objectives of studying the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body, photographing Earth and the rest of the solar system, and preparing the way for a dramatically improved next generation of space stations. Everyone involved in these projects had much to learn. Engineers building Salyut and Skylab shared concerns about size, shape, weight, and strength. Protection from micrometeors, insulation from extreme temperatures, and how to attach many of the external components also consumed engineers from both nations.

Other teams focusing on the interior of space stations had concerns about how astronauts would live and perform their experiments. The interior space had to be designed to...