For Russians, Mir was one of its last symbols of superpower status. That feeling is not universally shared here. Asserting that Russia must not concede outer space to the United States, Russian parliamentary speaker Gennady N. Seleznyov tried unsuccessfully this month to persuade President Vladimir V. Putin to save Mir and order up a new station, Mir-2. What the Russians finally figured out, he said, was to use the program to get them into international commercial space activities. For Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-area policy group, the geopolitical aspect of Mir's demise is the most important factor.
Piloted spaceflight is about politics.
Mir's core was launched into orbit in February 1986, and, like a child's Erector set, it morphed into different shapes as time went on. Its worst day was June 25, 1997. During a manual docking test of an unmanned Progress supply ship, Mir collided with a remote sensing module, causing a temporary loss of air pressure. Commander Vasily Tsibliyev, Flight Engineer Alexander Lazutkin, and U.S. astronaut Michael Foale quickly secured the module and began fixing the damage. Russia has the most experience in this.