မီယာအာကာသစခန်း

{{Infobox Space station
 | station = *Mir*
 | Date If Fail = 21 March 2001
 | station_image = Mir Space Station viewed from Endeavour during STS-89.jpg
 | station_image_alt = A view of Mir backdropped by the limb of the Earth. In view are four cylindrical modules covered in white insulation arranged in a cross shape about a small, central sphere. Another module projects backward from this sphere, and a small module is attached to the far end of that. Each module is sprouting various solar arrays, cranes and other spindly equipment, with Soyuz and Progress spacecraft docked to the forward and aft ports of the complex.
 | station_image_size =
 | station_image_caption  = *Mir* on 9 February 1998 as seen from the departing  during STS-89
 | extra_image =
 | extra_image_size =
 | extra_image_caption  =
 | insignia               = Mir insignia.svg
 | insignia_size          =
 | insignia_alt           = A vaguely trapezoid blue patch with rounded corners, bordered by a thick red line. A star made up of two red and yellow arrowheads sits in the middle on top of an angular white spiral which comes to form a globe shape in the centre. The letters 'Мир' are visible in white to the top left of the patch.
 | insignia_caption       = *Mir* insignia
 | sign                   = *Mir*
 | crew                   = 3
 | launch                 = 20 February 1986 – 23 April 1996
 | launch_pad             = LC-200/39, and LC-81/23, Baikonur CosmodromeLC-39A,Kennedy Space Center
 | reentry                = 23 March 200105:59 UTC
 | mass                   = 129,700 kg(285,940 lbs)
 | length                 = 19&nbsp;m (62.3&nbsp;ft)from the core module to *Kvant*-1
 | width                  = 31&nbsp;m (101.7&nbsp;ft)from *Priroda* to the docking module
 | height                 = 27.5&nbsp;m (90.2&nbsp;ft)from *Kvant*-2 to *Spektr*
 | volume                 = 350 m³
 | pressure               = c.101.3&nbsp;kPa (29.91&nbsp;inHg, 1 atm)
 | perigee                = 354&nbsp;km (189&nbsp;nmi) AMSL \bar{x} \!\,
 | apogee                 = 374&nbsp;km (216&nbsp;nmi) AMSL \bar{x} \!\,
 | inclination            = 51.6 degrees
 | altitude               =
 | speed                  = 7,700&nbsp;m/s(27,700&nbsp;km/h, 17,200&nbsp;mph)
 | period                 = 91.9 minutes \bar{x} \!\,
 | orbits_day             = 15.7 \bar{x} \!\,
 | in_orbit               = 5,519 days
 | occupied               = 4,592 days
 | orbits                 = 86,331
 | NSSDC_ID               = 1986-017A
 | as_of                  = 23 March 2001(unless noted otherwise)
 | stats_ref              = 
 | configuration_image    = Mir diagram.svg
 | configuration_size     =
 | configuration_caption  = Station elements as of May 1996.
 |configuration_alt       = The main components of Mir shown as a line diagram, with each module highlighted in a different colour.
}}

***မီယာအာကာသစခန်း*** (, ; lit.&nbsp;*Peace* or *World*) သည် ၁၉၈၆ မှ ၂၀၀၁ အထိ ကမ္ဘာပတ်လမ်းကြောင်း အနိမ့်တွင်ရှိခဲ့သော ဆိုဗီယက်(နောင်သော်)ရုရှားအာကာသစခန်းဖြစ်သည်။ ၁၉၈၆ မှ ၁၉၉၆ထိ ကမ္ဘာပတ်လမ်းကြောင်းပေါ်တွင် တပ်ဆင်ခဲ့သော မီယာအာကာသစခန်းသည် ပထမဆုံး အာကာသစခန်းဖြစ်ပြီး ယခင် အာကာသယာဉ်များထက် အရွယ်ကြီးမားသည်။  ၂၀၀၁ မတ်လ ယင်းအာကာသစခန်းအားကမ္ဘာပတ်လမ်းမှ ဖြုတ်ချခဲ့ချိန်အထိ မီယာအာကာသစခန်းသည် သမိုင်းတွင် အကြီးဆုံးဂြိုဟ်တုကြီးဖြစ်သည်။ (နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် နိုင်ငံတကာအာကာသစခန်းက အကြီးဆုံးစံချိန်သစ် တင်သွားသည်။) *မီယာအာကာသစခန်း*သည် အာကာသတွင် အမြဲတမ်းနေထိုင်နိုင်ရန် လိုအပ်သော နည်းပညာများ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးအတွက် ဇီဝဗေဒ၊ မနုဿဇီဝဗေဒ၊ ရူပဗေဒ၊ နက္ခတ်ပညာဆိုင်ရာ၊ ဥက္ကာပျံများဆိုင်ရာနှင့်  အာကာသယာဉ်ဆိုင်ရာ ကမ္ဘာ့ဆွဲ အားနည်းပါးသောနေရာရှိ သုသေသန စမ်းသပ်ခန်းဖြစ်ခဲ့သည်။

The station was the first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space and was operated by a series of long-duration crews. The *Mir* programme held the record for the longest uninterrupted human presence in space, at 3,644 days, until 23 October 2010 (when it was surpassed by the ISS), and it currently holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, of Valeri Polyakov, at 437 days 18 hours. *Mir* was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, and larger crews for short-term visits.

ဆလျူစီမံကိန်းများ အောင်မြင်ပြီးနောက်တွင် *မီယာ* စီမံကိန်းသည် ဆိုဗီယက် အာကာသစခန်းစီမံကိန်း၏နောက်တစ်ဆင့်ဖြစ်သည်။ အာကာသစခန်း၏ အူတိုင်မော်ဂျူး(core module )သို့မဟုတ် အထိုင်ပိုင်းဟုခေါ်သော ပထမဆုံးမော်ဂျူးကို ၁၉၈၆ တွင် လွှတ်တင်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့နောက်မော်ဂျူး ၆ ခုကို ဆက်တိုက် လွှတ်တင်ခဲ့သည်။  ဆိုက်ကပ်မော်ဂျူး(docking module)မှလွဲ၍ အားလုံးကို ပရိုတွန်ဒုံးပျံများဖြင့် လွှတ်တင်ခဲ့သည်။ စခန်းတစ်ခုလုံး တပ်ဆင်ပြီးသွားပြီးနောက်တွင် ဖိအားမြင့်မော်းဂျူး ၇ ပိုင်းပါဝင်ပြီး ဖိအားမဲ့မော်ဂျူး များစွာ ပါဝင်သည်။ လျှပ်စစ်ဓာတ်အားကို မော်ဂျူးများတွင် တိုက်ရိုက်တပ်ဆင်ထားသော များစွာသော  အလင်းလျှပ်စစ်အတန်း(photovoltaic arrays )များမှ ရရှိသည်။ The station was maintained at an orbit between  and  altitude and traveled at an average speed of 27,700&nbsp;km/h (17,200&nbsp;mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.

ဤအာကာသစခန်းသည် ဆိုဗီယက်ပြည်ထောင်စု၏ အာကာသတွင် ကြာမြင့်စွာ လူစီးအာကာသယာဉ်စီမံကိန်း( manned spaceflight programme) effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, and, following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA). As a result, the vast majority of the station's crew were Soviet or Russian; however, through  international collaborations, including the Intercosmos, Euromir and Shuttle-*Mir* programmes, the station was made accessible to astronauts from North America, several European nations and Japan. The cost of the *Mir* programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime (including development, assembly and orbital operation). The station was serviced by Soyuz spacecraft, Progress spacecraft and U.S. space shuttles, and was visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 12 different nations.|alt=A diagram illustrating the configuration of Mir's docking node over the station's lifetime. See adjacent text for details.]]
ကမ္ဘာပတ်လမ်းတွင် မီယာအာကာသယာဉ် တပ်ဆင်ခြင်းအား ၁၉၈၆တွင် မီယာအူတိုင်မော်ဂျူးအား ပရိုတွန်ဒုံးပျံဖြင့် ပစ်လွှတ်ခြင်းဖြင့် စတင်ခဲ့သည်။ Four of the six modules which were later added (*Kvant*-2 in 1989, *Kristall* in 1990, *Spektr* in 1995 and *Priroda* in 1996) followed the same sequence to add themselves to the main *Mir* complex. Firstly, the module would be launched independently on its own Proton-K and chase the station automatically. It would then dock to the forward docking port on the core module's docking node, then extend its Lyappa arm to mate with a fixture on the mode's exterior. The arm would then lift the module away from the forward docking port and rotate it on to the radial port that the module was to mate with, before lowering it down to dock. The node was equipped with only two *Konus* drogues, however, which were required for dockings. This meant that, prior to the arrival of each new module, the node would have to be depressurised to allow spacewalking cosmonauts to manually relocate the drogue to the next port to be occupied.

Each module was also fitted with a number of external components specific to the experiments that were carried out within that module, the most obvious being the Travers antenna mounted to *Priroda*. This synthetic aperture radar consisted of a large dish-like framework mounted to the exterior of the module, with associated equipment within, used for Earth observations experiments, as was most of the other equipment on *Priroda*, including various radiometers and scan platforms. When the attitude of the station needed to be changed, the gyrodynes were disengaged, thrusters (including those mounted directly to the modules, and the VDU thruster used for roll control mounted to the *Sofora* girder) were used to attain the new attitude and the CMGs were reengaged.

* The drag resulting from the residual atmosphere,
* Vibratory acceleration caused by mechanical systems and the crew on board the station,
* Orbital corrections by the on-board gyroscopes (which spun at 10,000&nbsp;rpm, producing vibrations of 166.67&nbsp;Hz Normal air pressure on the station was 101.3&nbsp;kPa (14.7&nbsp;psi); the same as at sea level on Earth.

## နိုင်ငံတကာပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ
 (right) နှင့် Vasily Tsibliyev တို့အား အူတိုင်မော်ဂျူးတွင်တွေ့ရပုံ|alt=Two men seen in front of a wall featuring a number of switches and dials and covered by large American, Russian and German flags. The men are wearing blue jumpsuits, and two ventilation hoses are visible at the top of the image.]]

### Intercosmos
Intercosmos ("ИнтерКосмос" Interkosmos) was a space exploration programme run by the Soviet Union to allow members from the military forces of allied Warsaw Pact countries to participate in manned and unmanned space exploration missions. Participation was also made available to governments of sympathetic countries, such as France and India.

Only the last three of the programme's fourteen missions consisted of an expedition to *Mir* but none resulted in an extended stay in the station.
* Muhammed Faris - EP-1 (1987) 
* Aleksandr Panayatov Aleksandrov - EP-2 (1988) 
* Abdul Ahad Mohmand - EP-3 (1988) 

### ဥရောပနိုင်ငံများပါဝင်လာခြင်း
Over the course of the *Mir* programme, various European astronauts visited the station as part of several cooperative programmes:

* Jean-Loup Chrétien - *Aragatz* (1988) 
* Helen Sharman - Project Juno (1991) 
* Franz Viehböck - Austromir '91 (1991) 
* Klaus-Dietrich Flade - *Mir* '92 (1992) 
* Michel Tognini - *Antarès* (1992) 
* Jean-Pierre Haigneré - *Altair* (1993) 
* Ulf Merbold - Euromir '94 (1994) 
* Thomas Reiter - Euromir '95 (1995) 
* Claudie Haigneré - *Cassiopée* (1996) 
* Reinhold Ewald - *Mir* '97 (1997) 
* Léopold Eyharts - *Pégase* (1998) 
* Ivan Bella - *Stefanik* (1999) 

### အာကာသလွန်းပျံ-မီယာစီမံကိန်း
In the early 1980s, NASA planned to launch a modular space station called *Freedom* as a counterpart to *Mir*, while the Soviets were planning to construct *Mir*-2 in the 1990s as a replacement for the station. Because of budget and design constraints, *Freedom* never progressed past mock-ups and minor component tests and, with the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Space Race, the project was nearly cancelled entirely by the United States House of Representatives. The post-Soviet economic chaos in Russia also led to the cancellation of *Mir*-2, though only after its base block, DOS-8, had been constructed. They also agreed, in preparation of this new project, that the United States would be heavily involved in the *Mir* programme as part of an international project known as the Shuttle–*Mir* programme. The project, sometimes called "Phase One", was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience in long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their space agencies, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). 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 (ISS). The programme 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 U.S. astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions.

### အခြားဧည့်သည်များ
* Toyohiro Akiyama - *Kosmoreporter* (1990) 

## Life on board
|alt=A video tourinf the interior of Mir. Beginning in Kristall, the tour travels the length of that module, then cuts into Priroda, examining the scientific equipment within. The tour cuts into the core module's docking node, showing the interior of a docked Progress spacecraft, then moves into the core module. The table and one of the sleeping compartments is seen, as is an out-the-window view of a docked space shuttle, before the tour moves to its conclusion in Spektr.]]
's docking node, demonstrating the crowded nature of the station.|alt=A view of the station's node module, with four open hatches visible. Each hatch is surrounded by a wide green ring, with the node walls coloured white. Numerous ventilation hoses and cables are visible passing between the hatches, and a gyrodyne and hatch cover are seen floating toward the lower left of the image.]]
Inside, the 130&nbsp;tonne *Mir* resembled a cramped labyrinth, crowded with hoses, cables and scientific instruments &mdash; as well as articles of everyday life, such as photos, children's drawings, books and a guitar. It commonly housed three crew members, but was capable of supporting as many as six for up to a month. The station was designed to remain in orbit for around five years, but ended up remaining in orbit for fifteen. As a result, NASA astronaut John Blaha reported that, with the exception of *Priroda* and *Spektr*, which were added later into the station's life, *Mir* did look used, which is to be expected given it had been lived in for ten to eleven years without being brought home and cleaned.

### Crew schedule
The time zone used on board *Mir* was Moscow Time (UTC+03). The windows were covered during night hours to give the impression of darkness because the station experienced 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. A typical day for the crew began with a wake-up at 08:00, followed by two hours of personal hygiene and breakfast. Work was conducted from 10:00 until 13:00, followed by an hour of exercise and an hour's lunch break. Three more hours of work and another hour of exercise followed lunch, and the crews began preparing for their evening meal at about 19:00. The cosmonauts were free to do as they wished in the evening, and largely worked to their own pace during the day. The station was also equipped with a large supply of books and films for the crew to read and watch.

To prevent some of these adverse physiological effects, the station was equipped with two treadmills (in the core module and *Kvant*-2) and a stationary bicycle (in the core module); each cosmonaut was to cycle the equivalent of 10&nbsp;km and run the equivalent of 5&nbsp; per day.

### Hygiene
There were two space toilets (ASUs) on *Mir*, located in the core module and *Kvant*-2.

### အစားအစာနှင့်သောက်ရေ
အာကာသယာဉ်မှူးများ၏အစားအသောက်အများစုမှာအေးခဲထားသောအစာများနှင့်စည်သွပ်အစာများဖြစ်ကြသည်။ Menus were prepared by the cosmonauts, with the help of a dietitian, before their flight to the station. The diet was designed to provide around 100&nbsp;g of protein, 130&nbsp;g of fat and 330&nbsp;g of carbohydrates per day, in addition to appropriate mineral and vitamin supplements. Meals were spread out throughout the day to aid assimilation. The station was occupied for a total of four distinct periods; 12 March&ndash;16 July 1986 (EO-1), 5 February 1987 – 27 April 1989 (EO-2&ndash;EO-4), the record-breaking run from 5 September 1989 – 28 August 1999 (EO-5&ndash;EO-27), and 4 April&ndash;16 June 2000 (EO-28).

Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov first docked with the Mir space station on 15 March 1986.  During their nearly 51-day stay on *Mir*, they brought the station online and checked its systems.  They also unloaded two Progress spacecraft launched after their arrival, Progress 25 and Progress 26.

On 5 May 1986, they undocked from *Mir* for a day-long journey to Salyut 7. They spent 51 days there and gathered 400&nbsp;kg of scientific material from Salyut 7 for return to *Mir*.  While Soyuz T-15 was at Salyut 7, the unmanned Soyuz TM-1 arrived at the unoccupied *Mir* and remained for 9 days, testing the new Soyuz TM model. Soyuz T-15 redocked with *Mir* on 26 June and delivered the experiments and 20 instruments, including a multichannel spectrometer. The EO-1 crew spent their last 20 days on *Mir* conducting Earth observations before returning to Earth on 16 July 1986, leaving the new station unoccupied.

The second expedition to *Mir*, EO-2, launched on Soyuz TM-2 on 5 February 1987. During their stay, the *Kvant*-1 module, launched on 30 March 1987, arrived. It was the first experimental version of a planned series of '37K' modules scheduled to be launched to *Mir* on the Soviet *Buran* spacecraft. *Kvant*-1 was originally planned to dock with Salyut 7; however, due to technical problems during its development, it was reassigned to *Mir*. The module carried the first set of six gyroscopes for attitude control. The module also carried instruments for X-ray and ultraviolet astrophysical observations.

The Soyuz TM-2 launch was the beginning of a string of 6 Soyuz launches and three long-duration crews between 5 February 1987 and 27 April 1989. This period also saw the first international visitors to the station, Muhammed Faris (Syria), Abdul Ahad Mohmand (Afghanistan) and Jean-Loup Chrétien (France).  With the departure of EO-4 on Soyuz TM-7 on 27 April 1989 the station was once again left unoccupied.

 in 1989|alt=A collection of three space station modules, arranged in an L-shape. At the left of the image is a Soyuz spacecraft docked to a short, stubby module, in turn docked to a larger, stepped-cylindrical module covered in white insulation, from which solar arrays project. A third module, similar in size to the stepped-cylinder module, is attached to the upper port of that module, forming the up-stroke of the L. This module is also projecting two solar arrays, and the cloudy Earth serves as the image's backdrop.]]
After a delay of 40 days due to problems with a batch of computer chips, *Kvant*-2 was launched on 26 November 1989. After problems deploying the craft's solar array and with the automated docking systems on both *Kvant*-2 and *Mir*, the new module was docked manually on 6 December. *Kvant*-2 added a second set of gyrodines to *Mir*, and also carried the new life support systems for recycling water and generating oxygen on board the station, reducing its dependence on resupply from the ground.  The module also featured a large airlock with a one-metre hatch. A special backpack unit (known as *Ikar*), an equivalent of the U.S. MMU, was located inside *Kvant*-2's airlock.

Soyuz TM-9 launched EO-6 crew members Anatoly Solovyev and Aleksandr Balandin on 11 February 1990.  While docking, the EO-5 crew on board *Mir* noted that three thermal blankets on the ferry were loose, potentially creating problems on reentry, but it was decided that they would be manageable. Their stay on board *Mir* saw the addition of the *Kristall* module, launched on 31 May 1990. The first docking attempt on 6 June was aborted due to an attitude control thruster failure. *Kristall* arrived at Mir’s front port on 10 June and was relocated to the lateral port opposite *Kvant*-2 the next day, restoring the equilibrium of the complex.  Due to the delay in the docking of *Kristall*, EO-6 was extended by 10 days to permit the activation of the module’s systems and to accommodate the EVA to repair the loose thermal blankets on Soyuz TM-9.

*Kristall* contained a number of furnaces for use in producing crystals under microgravity conditions (hence the choice of name for the module). The module was also equipped with biotechnology research equipment, including a small greenhouse for plant cultivation experiments which was equipped with a source of light and a feeding system, in addition to equipment for astronomical observations. The most obvious features of the module, however, were the two Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS-89) docking ports designed to be compatible with the *Buran* spacecraft. Although they were never used in a *Buran* docking, they were later to prove very useful during the Shuttle-*Mir* programme, providing a berthing location for U.S Space Shuttles.

The EO-7 relief crew arrived aboard Soyuz TM-10 on 3 August 1990. The new crew arrived at *Mir* with quail for *Kvant*-2's cages, one of which laid an egg en route to the station. It was returned to Earth, along with 130&nbsp;kg of experiment results and industrial products, in Soyuz TM-9.

The first manned mission flown from an independent Kazakhstan was Soyuz TM-14, launched on 17 March 1992, which carried the EO-11 crew to *Mir*, docking on 19 March before the departure of Soyuz TM-13. On 17 June, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and U.S. President George H. W. Bush announced what would later become the Shuttle-*Mir* programme, a cooperative venture which would prove very useful to the cash-strapped Roskosmos (and led to the eventual completion and launch of *Spektr* and *Priroda*). EO-12 followed in July, alongside a brief visit by French astronaut Michel Tognini.

#### Shuttle–*Mir*
|alt=A cluster of cylindrical modules with projecting feathery solar arrays and a space shuttle docked to the lower module. In the background is the blackness of space, and, in the lower right corner, Earth.]]
The 3 February launch of , flying STS-63, opened operations on *Mir* for 1995. Referred to as the "near-*Mir*" mission, the mission saw the first rendezvous of a space shuttle with *Mir* as the orbiter approached within  of the station as a dress rehearsal for later docking missions and for equipment testing. Five weeks after *Discovery*'s departure, the EO-18 crew, including the first U.S. cosmonaut Norman Thagard, arrived in Soyuz TM-21. The EO-17 crew left a few days later, with Polyakov completing his record-breaking 437-day spaceflight. During EO-18, the *Spektr* science module (which served as living and working space for American astronauts) was launched aboard a Proton rocket and docked to the station, carrying research equipment from America and other nations. The expedition's crew returned to Earth aboard  following the first Shuttle–*Mir* docking mission, STS-71. *Atlantis*, launched on 27 June 1995, successfully docked with *Mir* on 29 June becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to dock with a Russian spacecraft since the ASTP in 1975. The orbiter delivered the EO-19 crew and returned the EO-18 crew to Earth. The EO-20 crew were launched on 3 September, followed in November by the arrival of the docking module during STS-74.

The two-man EO-21 crew was launched on 21 February 1996 aboard Soyuz TM-23 and were soon joined by U.S. crew member Shannon Lucid, who was brought to the station by *Atlantis* during STS-76. This mission saw the first joint U.S. spacewalk on *Mir* take place deploying the MEEP package on the docking module. Lucid became the first American to carry out a long-duration mission aboard *Mir* with her 188-day mission, which set the U.S. single spaceflight record. During Lucid's time aboard *Mir*, *Priroda*, the station's final module, arrived as did French visitor Claudie Haigneré flying the *Cassiopée* mission. The flight aboard Soyuz TM-24 also delivered the EO-22 crew of Valery Korzun and Aleksandr Kaleri.

Lucid's stay aboard *Mir* ended with the flight of *Atlantis* on STS-79, which launched on 16 September. This, the fourth docking, saw John Blaha transferring onto *Mir* to take his place as resident U.S. astronaut. His stay on the station improved operations in several areas, including transfer procedures for a docked space shuttle, "hand-over" procedures for long duration American crew members and "ham" amateur radio communications, and also saw two spacewalks to reconfigure the station's power grid. In all, Blaha spent four months with the EO-22 crew before returning to Earth aboard *Atlantis* on STS-81 in January 1997, at which point he was replaced by physician Jerry Linenger. During his flight, Linenger became the first American to conduct a spacewalk from a foreign space station and the first to test the Russian-built Orlan-M spacesuit alongside Russian cosmonaut Vasili Tsibliyev, flying EO-23. All three crew members of EO-23 performed a "fly-around" in Soyuz TM-25 spacecraft.

After these incidents, the U.S. Congress and NASA considered whether to abandon the programme out of concern for the astronauts' safety, but NASA administrator Daniel Goldin decided to continue the programme. Wolf spent 119 days aboard *Mir* with the EO-24 crew and was replaced during STS-89 with Andy Thomas, who carried out the last U.S. expedition on *Mir*. The EO-25 crew arrived in Soyuz TM-27 in January 1998 before Thomas returned to Earth on the final Shuttle–*Mir* mission, STS-91.

#### Final days and deorbit
Following the departure of *Discovery* on 8 June 1998, the EO-25 crew of Budarin and Musabayev were left aboard the station, carrying out materials experiments and the compiling of a station inventory. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Yuri Koptev, the director of the Roskosmos, announced on 2 July that, due to a lack of funding to keep *Mir* flying, the station would be deorbited in June 1999.

*Mir*s deorbit was carried out in three stages. The first stage involved waiting for atmospheric drag to reduce the station's orbit to an average of . This began with the docking of Progress M1-5, a modified version of the Progress-M carrying 2.5 times more fuel in place of supplies. The second stage was the transfer of the station into a 165&nbsp;×&nbsp;220&nbsp;km (103&nbsp;×&nbsp;137&nbsp;mi) orbit. This was achieved with two burns of Progress M1-5's control engines at 00:32 UTC and 02:01 UTC on 23 March 2001.  After a two-orbit pause, the third and final stage of *Mir*'s deorbit began with the burn of Progress M1-5's control engines and main engine at 05:08 UTC, lasting a little over 22 minutes.  Reentry into Earth's atmosphere (100&nbsp;km/60&nbsp;mi AMSL) of the 15-year-old space station occurred at 05:44 UTC near Nadi, Fiji.  Major destruction of the station began around 05:52 UTC and the unburned fragments fell into the South Pacific Ocean around 06:00 UTC.

### Visiting spacecraft
 docked with *Mir* as seen from the  during STS-79|alt=An image of the four radial modules of the space station, with a Soyuz spacecraft, seen docked to the centre of the cluster. The Soyuz consists of a spherical orbital module, headlight-shaped descent module and cylindrical service module to which are attached two blue solar arrays. The entire spacecraft is covered in dark insulation except the base of the service module, which is white.]]
*Mir* was primarily supported by the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and had two ports available for docking these spacecraft. Initially, the fore and aft ports of the core module could be used for dockings, but following the permanent berthing of *Kvant*-1 to the aft port in 1987, the rear port of the new module took on this role from the core module's aft port. Each port was equipped with the plumbing required for Progress cargo ferries to replace the station's fluids and also the guidance systems needed to guide the spacecraft in for docking. Two such systems were used on *Mir*; the rear ports of both the core module and *Kvant*-1 were equipped with both the Igla and Kurs systems, whilst the core module's forward port featured only the newer Kurs. Two models of Soyuz flew to *Mir*; Soyuz T-15 was the only Igla-equipped Soyuz-T to visit the station, whilst all other flights used the newer, Kurs-equipped Soyuz-TM. A total of 31 (30 manned, 1 unmanned) Soyuz spacecraft flew to the station over a fourteen-year period. As a result, when its cargoes had been unloaded, each Progress was refilled with rubbish, spent equipment and other waste which was destroyed, along with the Progress itself, on reentry. The shuttles provided crew rotation of the American astronauts on station and carried cargo to and from the station, performing some of the largest transfers of cargo of the time. With a space shuttle docked to *Mir*, the temporary enlargements of living and working areas amounted to a complex that was the largest spacecraft in history at that time, with a combined mass of . The facility is now used to control the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS. This is approximately half of that received from natural background radiation on Earth in a year. The radiation environment of the station was not uniform, however; closer proximity to the station's hull led to an increased radiation dose, and the strength of radiation shielding varied between modules; *Kvant*-2's being better than the core module, for instance.

The increased radiation levels result in a higher risk of crews developing cancer, and can cause damage to the chromosomes of lymphocytes. These cells are central to the immune system and so any damage to them could contribute to the lowered immunity experienced by cosmonauts. Over time, lowered immunity results in the spread of infection between crew members, especially in such confined areas. Radiation has also been linked to a higher incidence of cataracts in cosmonauts. Protective shielding and protective drugs may lower the risks to an acceptable level, but data is scarce and longer-term exposure will result in greater risks. posed a threat to the station as they have the ability to puncture pressurised modules and cause damage to other parts of the station, such as the solar arrays. Micrometeoroids also posed a risk to spacewalking cosmonauts, as such objects could puncture their spacesuits, causing them to depressurise. Meteor showers in particular posed a significant risk to the station, and, during such storms, the crews slept in their Soyuz ferries to facilitate an emergency evacuation should *Mir* be damaged.

## မှီငြမ်း 
## ပြင်ပချိတ်ဆက်ရန်များ 
* NASA animation of *Mir*'s deorbit .
* *Mir* Diary 
* Site containing detailed diagrams, pictures and background info
* Site contains information on problems aboard Mir 
* Shuttle-*Mir*: Phase 1 Program Joint Report 
* Mir Space Station (NASA Book)