  Binary stars are crucial laboratories for stellar physics, so have been
photometric targets for space missions beginning with the very first orbiting
telescope (OAO-2) launched in 1968. This review traces the binary stars
observed and the scientific results obtained from the early days of ultraviolet
missions (OAO-2, Voyager, ANS, IUE), through a period of diversification
(Hipparcos, WIRE, MOST, BRITE), to the current era of large planetary transit
surveys (CoRoT, Kepler, TESS). In this time observations have been obtained of
detached, semi-detached and contact binaries containing dwarfs, sub-giants,
giants, supergiants, white dwarfs, planets, neutron stars and accretion discs.
Recent missions have found a huge variety of objects such as pulsating stars in
eclipsing binaries, multi-eclipsers, heartbeat stars and binaries hosting
transiting planets. Particular attention is paid to eclipsing binaries, because
they are staggeringly useful, and to the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey
Satellite (TESS) because its huge sky coverage enables a wide range of
scientific investigations with unprecedented ease. These results are placed
into context, future missions are discussed, and a list of important science
goals is presented.
