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Astronomy: Mir space station
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Mir was a Russian space station that has been in orbit from 1986 until March 2001. In 1986 the base block module from Mir was launched. Five more modules for scientific experiments and work space were added during the next decade. The station had a core block of living quarters and six docking ports for Soyuz supply ships. Mir could be expanded, rearranged and upgraded without affecting the core block. Over the years Mir has survived a fire, collisions with spacecrafts and even attacks on its wiring, by microbes that ate metal and glass. After 15 years when its orbit begain to fail, Mir was replaced by the International Space Station. Russia performed a controlled re-entry to bring the station down. Many fragments of the station burnt up on re-entry. The few fragments that didn't burn up came down in the South Pacific ocean. Mir means "peace" in Russian language. Mir now rests in peace. |
 Mir and in the background the Moon < JPG image 639 X 601 pixels >  Cosmonaut Yuriy Onufriyenko in the base block module |
FactsRelated subjects>> International Space Station>> Soyuz spacecrafts |
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