BRAVE NEW WORLDS: REACHING TOWARDS A NEW ERA OF SPACE ARCHITECTURE

摘要

Architectures in Space present new worlds of challenge and opportunity as nations join together to explore human destinations beyond Earth. This great exploration adventure began a half-century ago when a tiny orbiting capsule first carried a young Soviet cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin around our planet on 12 April 1961. Within the next 11 years, 12 American citizens walked on the Moon as six of their crew companions orbited above. The Russian Mir (1986-2001) and US Skylab (1973-9) space stations that soon followed demonstrated that people can live and conduct useful work under weightless conditions over prolonged periods. New generations of launch and return vehicles, including the reusable Space Shuttle that also saw service as a habitat and laboratory, made space travel routine from 1981 to 2011.