 Artist's rendition by Tom Buzbee of the proposed Space Station Freedom design as of early 1991. An annotated version of this image is also available. | |
| Station statistics | |
|---|---|
| Crew | 4 |
| Mission status | Project converted into International Space Station |
| Pressurized volume | 878 m3 (31,000 cu ft) |
| Periapsis altitude | 400 km (250 mi) |
| Apoapsis altitude | 400 km (250 mi) |
| Orbital inclination | 28.5 deg |
Space Station Freedom was a NASA-led multi-national project proposed in the 1980s to construct a permanently crewed space station in low Earth orbit. Despite initial approval by President Ronald Reagan and a public announcement in the 1984 State of the Union Address, the ambitious project faced significant budget cuts and delays. Ultimately, a scaled-down version of Freedom evolved into the US Orbital Segment (USOS) of the International Space Station (ISS).
By the time the project was canceled, NASA had already invested approximately $11 billion into Space Station Freedom, however some of that work would benefit the ISS. As originally envisioned, the station would have been collaborative project involving four participating space agencies: NASA (United States), NASDA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). Those same partners would go on to build the USOS, but the ISS program also included Roscosmos of Russia who contributed their significant experience building operating space stations during Mir and the Salyut program to construct the Russian Orbital Segment.