Description
In March 2001 the Mir space station came down – 15 years and 79,000 orbits after it went up. It wasn’t an easy ride. The station suffered collisions, fires and computer crashes. But it also established records for endurance in space and for Russians, it was a symbol of national pride. We look back at the history of the space station with some fantastic pictures. It has shown us that humans can survive the hostile environment of space, can solve mechanical problems while isolated from the planet. The Mir space station was the pride of the Soviet program. A culmination of a dream that started at the beginning of a space race. Mir was launched in 1986. It was the Soviet’s third generation space station and most innovative design ever. The Salyut spacecrafts were fairly simple, one piece designs but Mir was different because it had a central node so other pieces could be added to it. And each piece was about the size of a bus. So imagine, six buses lifted into space one after another, each one a spacecraft onto itself, each one sprouts huge solar wings and then all of them come together in an unusual configuration affectionately known as dragon fly. It was the largest construction project ever attempted in space. The sheer size of Mir meant as many as six cosmonauts could live and work on board. It became the model for understanding what happens to the body and mind on long duration space flights. And out of necessity, it became a model for repairing a home in space. Mir provided the best advantage point ever for continuous human observation of the earth’s geography, weather patterns and environment. To the rest of the world, the pride of the Russian programme was unsafe. At the same time, there was continued pressure from the United States for the Russians to abandon Mir and put all their money and efforts into completing their modules for the new international space station or ISS. Despite attempts at commercial ventures for Mir, the Russians simply didn’t have enough money to fund both projects. So now Mir had to come down.