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Science

Space station Mir - memories of a legend in orbit

Twenty years ago, Russia decided to take its first space station Mir – meaning both "world" and "peace" – out of commission. It was in service for 15 years housing cosmonauts from the East and astronauts from the West.

  • Raumstation Mir 1995

    A soviet outpost

    In the 1970s, the Soviet Union decided to build the first permanently inhabited space station in a geostationary orbit. For Moscow, this meant winning back ground that was lost in the space race with the US. From 1986 on, Mir circled the Earth for 15 years. On January 5, 2001, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed the order to let the space station drop into the Pacific.

  • Raumstation Mir Raumschiff Atlantis

    Breaking the ice between East and West

    After the end of the Cold War, the future belonged to the International Space Station (ISS). But cross-country collaboration in space had its start on the Mir. The first western astronaut to visit was the French Jean-Loup Chretien in 1988. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, even US Space shuttles like Atlantis (pictured here) began traveling to the station. Four Germans spent time on Mir as well.

  • MIR Raumstation 22. und die 23. Besatzung

    Many visitors

    More than a hundred astronauts and cosmonauts from all over the world spent time on the Soviet space station. One of the Germans was the astronaut Reinhold Ewald (above, top row, second from the right). A Soyuz space ship took him to the Mir in 1997. A fire broke out during his stay, but fortunately the crew managed to put it out quickly.

  • Raumstation Mir 1997 Beschädigtes Sonnensegel

    Not everything went as planned

    The crews on space station Mir had to cope with numerous technical failures and accidents. Once, liquids came out of a cooling system. Another time the board computer suffered a black out. A progress supply ship even crashed into the solar panels. Ewald took the accidents with an astronaut's spirit: "A space station is not a business lounge with cozy armchairs," he once said.

  • Raumstation Mir

    A fossile in space

    The US, which contributed to maintaining the space station after the collapse of the Soviet Union, pushed for a new International Space Station (ISS). Construction of the successor started in 1998. At the same time, Mir was gradually taken apart. After 15 years in orbit and 86.000 flights around the globe, the project came to an end.

  • Raumstation Mir vor Versenkung 1998

    What goes up must come down

    Mir was a milestone in human space travel and international cooperation in space. "Without the experience of Mir, we would still be just at the beginning," German astronaut Thomas Reiter said. In March 2001, the last fragments of the space station burned up in the atmosphere above the South Pacific, the last intact pieces crashing into the ocean.


  • Raumstation Mir 1995

    A soviet outpost

    In the 1970s, the Soviet Union decided to build the first permanently inhabited space station in a geostationary orbit. For Moscow, this meant winning back ground that was lost in the space race with the US. From 1986 on, Mir circled the Earth for 15 years. On January 5, 2001, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed the order to let the space station drop into the Pacific.

  • Raumstation Mir Raumschiff Atlantis

    Breaking the ice between East and West

    After the end of the Cold War, the future belonged to the International Space Station (ISS). But cross-country collaboration in space had its start on the Mir. The first western astronaut to visit was the French Jean-Loup Chretien in 1988. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, even US Space shuttles like Atlantis (pictured here) began traveling to the station. Four Germans spent time on Mir as well.

  • MIR Raumstation 22. und die 23. Besatzung

    Many visitors

    More than a hundred astronauts and cosmonauts from all over the world spent time on the Soviet space station. One of the Germans was the astronaut Reinhold Ewald (above, top row, second from the right). A Soyuz space ship took him to the Mir in 1997. A fire broke out during his stay, but fortunately the crew managed to put it out quickly.

  • Raumstation Mir 1997 Beschädigtes Sonnensegel

    Not everything went as planned

    The crews on space station Mir had to cope with numerous technical failures and accidents. Once, liquids came out of a cooling system. Another time the board computer suffered a black out. A progress supply ship even crashed into the solar panels. Ewald took the accidents with an astronaut's spirit: "A space station is not a business lounge with cozy armchairs," he once said.

  • Raumstation Mir

    A fossile in space

    The US, which contributed to maintaining the space station after the collapse of the Soviet Union, pushed for a new International Space Station (ISS). Construction of the successor started in 1998. At the same time, Mir was gradually taken apart. After 15 years in orbit and 86.000 flights around the globe, the project came to an end.

  • Raumstation Mir vor Versenkung 1998

    What goes up must come down

    Mir was a milestone in human space travel and international cooperation in space. "Without the experience of Mir, we would still be just at the beginning," German astronaut Thomas Reiter said. In March 2001, the last fragments of the space station burned up in the atmosphere above the South Pacific, the last intact pieces crashing into the ocean.


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