The Mir Space Station
Learn about the history of this space station by Natalia!
INTRODUCTION
The Mir Space Station from Russia spent 15 years in orbit; that is three times its planned lifetime! The Mir grew the first crop of wheat to be grown seed to seed in outer space, that's pretty cool. For the people of Russia, the name "Mir" held meaning, feeling, and also history, but when translated to English, it means "world", "peace", and "village".
Historically, after the Edict of Emancipation, “Mir” referred to a Russian peasant community that owned its own land. In fact, a system of state-owned collective farms replaced the Mir after the Russian revolution of 1917, but in my opinion, the Mir is still the most fascinating ship.
CREW
Lots of other astronauts soon came aboard the Mir, and some even stayed on the Mir for missions lasting six months or even a year! A record set by a crew member in 1987 (326 days on the Mir) was broken by two other cosmonauts who spent 366 days in December 1988, but this was also broken by Valery Polyakov who returned to Earth on March 22, spending 438 days on the Mir
ABOUT THE MIR
THE END OF THE MIR
In February 2001, The Mir’s rockets were fired to slow down, but when the Mir re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on March 23, 2001, it burned and broke up and debris crashed in the in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles (1,667 kilometers) east of Australia. That right there marked the end of the greatest first permanent space station.