What was the first space station launched into orbit?

Salyut 1 was the first space station launched into orbit.

The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1 on 19 April 1971. It was a civilian-designated station based on work connected with the Soviet Almaz military-station program, and it provided an orbital laboratory for scientific and engineering experiments.

The first crew, carried by Soyuz 10, reached the station but could not enter because of a docking-system problem. Soyuz 11 later delivered a crew that lived aboard Salyut 1 for 23 days. The astronauts died during the return flight when their spacecraft depressurized, making the mission a tragic turning point in crew-safety practices.

Salyut 1 reentered Earth’s atmosphere in October 1971. Skylab was the first United States space station, while Mir was a later Soviet station assembled from multiple modules.