Mir

The core module of Mir was launched in February 1986 and the fully assembled multi­module station was de-orbited fifteen years later in March 2001. In between, it housed 28 main crews and a host of visiting crews, including 16 international guest cosmo­nauts and 7 NASA astronauts on long-duration missions. A total of 41 Russian cosmonauts also visited, lived and worked on the station, as did 37 Shuttle astronauts during 9 docking missions. The station eventually acted as the link between Russia and the USA. The spiralling cost of the original US-led Space Station Freedom programme, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, led to Russia becoming part of the International Space Station programme which, despite national calls for extending the life of the station or launching a second Mir, eventually took over from the historic Mir station in 2000 as the main focus for Russian space efforts.

Mir’s base block was 13.13 m long with a maximum diameter of 4.15 m. It featured a forward docking node, with five other ports allowing transport craft to dock at the forward or aft ports of the module. Four separate science modules were later added. Kvant was docked permanently at the rear port and had its own aft facility to allow continued docking at the rear of the complex by Soyuz and Progress craft. The other modules were located around the forward docking node. Extensive EVA work from the node, and then from Kvant 2 enhanced and supported Mir’s research programme and capabilities.