February 20, 2017
Categories: History, Russia, Science, Space

On February 20, 1986, 31 years ago the first module of Mir space station was orbited by Proton booster. It was a breakthrough for Soviet manned cosmonautics and orbital program and a milestone for world space exploration.
The station had been operating for 15 years instead of 5 years initially planned and was a home for cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 countries. 104 cosmonauts and astronauts visited Mir though initially it was designed as a soviet national project. For the years of its operation 25 international manned programs had been successfully completed. The first foreign astronaut working onboard Mir was from Syria, as for the US there were even more Americans who had visited the station than Russians.
Orbital complex consisted of 6 modules, the total mass of the station amounted to 140 tons. More than 11 tons of scientific equipment were deployed aboard Mir and more than 23 thousand experiments and studies conducted. For station maintenance and upgrade the cosmonauts performed 78 spacewalks.
“For me Mir orbital station was the first and most complex object I controlled from Mission Control centre. It has been always associated with an enormous extraterrestrial home not only for those crews working onboard but either for the whole mankind. For me personally at that time it was an inconceivable creation of a human genius, a dream I’ve been always aspired to”, – Hero of the Russian Federation, pilot cosmonaut Andrei Borisenko who is currently working onboard the ISS says.
In the course of Mir space project implementation our country gained unique scientific and technical experience in the field of long-duration spaceflights.

More from this category:
January 20, 2015

On Monday, January 19, space flight participant Sarah Brightman who will be a crew member of Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft started  her training in Gagarin Cosmonaut…

full story
July 2, 2020

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken stepped out into the space to replace ageing batteries on the International Space Station on July 1. This…

full story
November 14, 2013

Boeing Defense & Space Group division who is the main NASA space station contractor and Khrunichev State Research and Production Centre signed a contract on…

full story
June 2, 2014

The preparation of the next manned spacecraft for the ISS flight has started in the integration building of 245 launchpad of Baikonur spaceport. Soyuz TMA-14M…

full story
February 11, 2019

Today, at the GCTC has completed experimental studies on the development of interactions between the cosmonaut and the anthropomorphic robot, which is controlled in a…

full story
April 16, 2013

Rosatom and Kurchatov Institute are working to create new generation nuclear reactor of megawatt class, so called “thermo-nuclear batteries”, – Rosatom Head Sergey Kiriyenko told…

full story
November 18, 2018

The “Progress MS-10” cargo spaceship on November 18, 2018 successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The ship was docked to the docking station…

full story
December 1, 2021

Next ISS orbit adjustment is planned for December 24, – Roscosmos press office reports. As the official message says: «The next ISS orbit adjustment maneuver…

full story