Page "Space station" Paragraph 9

The first space station was Salyut 1, which was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971.

Like all the early space stations, it was " monolithic ", intended to be constructed and launched in one piece, and then manned by a crew later.

As such, monolithic stations generally contained all their supplies and experimental equipment when launched, and were considered " expended ", and then abandoned, when these were used up.