/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9252015
>First space station was little more than 2 docked crafts

But the reusability of the station was an important step towards larger stations and habitats. Of course the first one of something is not going to be as advanced as later versions -- that does not detract from the achievement of doing it first, if "firsts" is a metric you are going to use.

Gemini did indeed pioneer and master rendezvous and docking, but Gemini dockings were all with unmanned target vehicles. In the case of Agena, these increased the spacecraft's capabilities, but did not provide a habitat for astronauts to make more long-termed observations and experiments.

Citing the Apollo stack as if its size made it a space-station counterpart is farcical -- the Apollo program was not in any sense a space-station or habitat program, it was a lunar landing and exploration program. (The use of legacy hardware for Skylab was ingenious, though, and gets you some connection from Apollo to space stations, if you really want one. The sheer ROOMINESS of Skylab has never been matched.)