Mir, 1986-2001
The Russian space station Mir was successfully de-orbitted on 23 March 2001 after 15 years in space (10 years longer thanthe station's planned lifetime). Observers in Japan and Fiji saw the remains of Mir burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. The surviving fragments hit the intended target area in the southern Pacific Ocean, 5,800km off the eastern coast of Australia.
History
Mir (meaning 'Peace') was launched in 1986 by the then Soviet Union and was intended to provide the Russians with a large orbiting platform for scientific research. It followed the series of Salyut space stations placed in orbit in the 1970s. Mir was assembled from a number of smaller modules – additional components were added from 1987 to 1996 – which specialised in areas such as astrophysics, remote sensing of the Earth and life sciences. The station was resupplied by unmanned Progress modules which also carried waste away when they left.
The Russians managed to maintain a presence on the station for virtually all of its 14-year lifetime, while the multinational International Space Station (ISS) was merely in its planning stage. Over 100 people from more than a dozen nations have taken up residence on board, including one Briton, Helen Sharman and one Anglo-American, Michael Foale.
Originally the station was expected to have a lifespan of seven years but this was extended to allow Mir to provide a training base for the construction of the ISS and to carry out joint operations with the US shuttle fleet.
Accomplishments
Advantages of having a space-based habitation include the ability to perform experiments in microgravity (the virtually weightless environment onboard spacecraft in Earth orbit) in disciplines as varied as life sciences, fluid mechanics and protein crystal growth. For astronomers Mir provided an excellent site for X-ray telescopes looking at the Universe's more energetic phenomena.
However the most useful experiments carried out on Mir were those using the cosmonauts themselves. Any serious exploration of the Solar System beyond the vicinity of the Earth and Moon requires the crew of a spacecraft to experience microgravity for very long periods of time (for example, this would be around two years for a return trip to Mars). The effect of this on the human body has become much clearer after the many years spent in space by different Russians. For example, the Russian cosmonaut Dr. Valeri Polyakov spent 14 months on board from January 1994 to March 1995, breaking the previous record for the longest consecutive number of days in space.
Mir's final days
On June 25, 1997 a Progress cargo ship collided with one of the station's modules causing a loss of air pressure and forcing the crew to make emergency repairs. Although the mission continued as planned, this incident led to serious speculation about the end of Mir. In 1999 it was left unoccupied for the first time in many years and the Russian authorities made the decision to deorbit the station. This allowed the Russian space agency to switch funding to their sections of the ISS.
An attempt to stave off Mir's destruction was made by a commercial company, MirCorp which envisaged the use of the station as a space hotel. It used private finance to fund a last mission to the station which began on April 6, 2000. The cosmonauts left on June 16 that year.
MirCorp did manage to obtain a single customer, the US millionaire Denis Tito who payed $10 million for a stay on the station. However, the Russians gave the final order to destroy Mir before he could make his visit and MirCorp will now look at building an ISS module for commercial use.
The station's last days began on 18 January 2001 when a Progress supply vessel was launched to carry fuel to Mir. This fuel was used to nudge the space station into the Earth's atmosphere in a controlled descent in March 2001.
This has brought what was once the prestige project of the Russian Space Agency to a fiery end – it lacked the glamour (and enormous funding) of the ISS but is recognised as a genuine first outpost in Earth orbit.
