The Skylab and Salyut missions firmly established the feasibility of extended stays in orbit and of performing fundamental-if rudimentary-research. In order to move beyond their limitations, a quantum leap forward in technology, something truly revolutionary, would be required. As former Houston Skylab program manager Robert F. Thompson observed, Skylab was a beautiful tactical program that had numerous shortcomings as a strategic program. Skylab was not designed for in-flight repair, re-supply with air and water, refurbishment with improved technology, re-visitation for re-boost to a higher orbit, or restructuring as part of a larger station. Consequently it could not, and did not, lead to a strategic, sustained human presence in space.7

Although America's space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), chose not to follow up on its limited space station success, opting instead to develop a reusable space vehicle, the...