page_title: Shuttle–Mir program
section_title: Mir
hierarchical_section_title: Shuttle–Mir program / Background / Mir
caption_attribution_description: English: Russia's Mir space station is backdropped over the blue and white planet Earth in this medium range photograph recorded during the final fly-around of the members of the fleet of NASA's shuttles. Seven crew members, including Andrew S.W. Thomas, were aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery when the photo was taken; and two of his former cosmonaut crewmates remained aboard Mir. Thomas ended up spending 141 days in space on this journey, including time aboard Space Shuttles Endeavour and Discovery, which transported him to and from Mir.
context_page_description: The Shuttle–Mir program was a collaborative 11-mission space program between Russia and the United States that involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the Shuttle, and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir.
  The project, sometimes called "Phase One", was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience with long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their space agencies, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The project helped to prepare the way for further cooperative space ventures; specifically, "Phase Two" of the joint project, the construction of the International Space Station. The program was announced in 1993, the first mission started in 1994 and the project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1000 cumulative days in space for American astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions.
context_section_description: Mir was constructed between 1986 and 1996 and was the world's first modular space station. It was the first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and previously held the record for longest continuous human presence in space, at eight days short of ten years. Mir's purpose was to provide a large and habitable scientific laboratory in space, and, through a number of collaborations, including Intercosmos and Shuttle–Mir, was made internationally accessible to cosmonauts and astronauts of many different countries. The station existed until March 23, 2001, at which point it was deliberately deorbited, and broke apart during atmospheric re-entry.
  Mir was based upon the Salyut series of space stations previously launched by the Soviet Union (seven Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971), and was mainly serviced by Russian-crewed Soyuz spacecraft and Progress cargo ships. The Buran space shuttle was anticipated to visit Mir, but its program was canceled after its first uncrewed spaceflight. Visiting US Space Shuttles used an Androgynous Peripheral Attach System docking collar originally designed for Buran, mounted on a bracket originally designed for use with the American Space Station Freedom.
  With the Space Shuttle docked to Mir, the temporary enlargements of living and working areas amounted to a complex that was the world's largest spacecraft at that time, with a combined mass of 250 metric tons (250 long tons; 280 short tons).
caption: The view of Mir from Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 as it left the station during STS-91
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