Russian Firsts in Space Exploration Russian Firsts in Space Exploration 20. July 2009 by Admin 0 Comments 40 years ago today, Apollo 11 successfully landed the first man on the moon. This American achievement was monumental, but it would have never happend if the Russians had not fueled the race to space. Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1956, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world. For a dozen years before the moon landing, the Russians racked up an extraordinary array of superlatives. It was the first to send a craft into orbit, with the Sputnik satellite in 1957. The first human to go into outer space was Russian Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Moscow sent the woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; and Alexei Leonov was the first person to venture outside a spacecraft into the endless cosmos, in 1965.

Russia even got to the moon first when the unmanned Luna 2 crashed in 1959. But the drama of the first human footprint on an extraterrestrial body eclipsed everything the Soviets had worked so hard to achieve. The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration. Here's a list from Wikipedia : 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1 1957: First animal to enter Earth orbit, the dog Laika (pictured) on Sputnik 2 1959: First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's orbit, Luna 1 1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.

1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Solar orbit, Luna 1 1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2 1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5. 1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1 1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme 1961: First person to spend over a day in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).

1962: First dual manned spaceflight and approach, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6 1964: First multi-man crew (3), Voskhod 1 1965: First EVA, by Aleksei Leonov, Voskhod 2 1965: First probe to hit another planet (Venus), Venera 3 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10 1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188.

(Until 2006, this had remained the only major space achievement that the US had not duplicated.) 1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 1970: First samples automatically returned to Earth from another body, Luna 16 1970: First robotic space rover, Lunokhod 1 1970: First data received from the surface of another planet (Venus), Venera 7 1971: First space station, Salyut 1 1971: First probe to orbit another planet (Mars), first probe to reach surface of Mars, Mars 2 1975: First probe to orbit Venus, first photos from surface of Venus, Venera 9 1984: First woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya (Salyut 7 space station) 1986: First crew to visit two separate space stations (Mir and Salyut 7) 1986: First permanently manned space station, Mir, which orbited the Earth from 19

86 until 2001 1987: First crew to spend over one year in space, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov on board of TM-4 - Mir 16 Names NASA Considered For The 1980s Space Station That Never Was 16 Names NASA Considered For The 1980s Space Station That Never Was Go to permalink During his 1984 State of the Union speech, President Reagan announced that the U.S.

would build a new permanently manned space station within a decade. The Space Shuttle program was underway, and a permanent space station seemed like the next logical step in our bold push into the final frontier. It didn't hurt that the Russians were already working on Mir , and America didn't want to look like it was resting on its laurels. Advertisement By 1988 (two years after the launch of Mir), the American space station project had progressed to the point that it came time to name it. NASA came up with sixteen possibilities, including everything from Olympia to Pilgrim, and presented President Reagan with the options along with different explanations for each one. David S. F. Portree over at Wired's very excellent Beyond Apollo blog has dug up the sixteen names that NASA considered. As Portree writes, the Space Station Name Committee appointed by Reagan laid out the specific rules for naming it: Advertisement The naming rules were straightforward. Candidate names were to be simple and easily pronounced, not refer to living persons, neither duplicate nor closely resemble NASA or non-NASA space program names, be translatable into the languages of the International Partners, and have neither ambiguous nor offensive meanings in the International Partner languages. In addition, acronyms were to be avoided.

The naming process was not to be revealed to the public; if, however, members of the public happened to submit names, the Name Committee would consider them. With that many rules, the names all fell into just a handful of categories, including gods and goddesses, some astronomical wordplay, and lots of freedom-loving ideological buzzwords. The list is below. Hercules Marianne J. Dyson | History of Space Stations Contact The History of Space Stations Author Note: this chapter was originally written for Space Station Science , but was cut to make room for more photos and activities. I've posted it here for people interested in the history of space stations. I'd like to thank NASA space station scientist Dr. Jack Bacon, and Skylab astronaut Dr. Joseph Kerwin for their help in reviewing the original chapter for technical accuracy. Golden Kite Award Winner For more details on space station history, check out my history reference book, Space and Astronmy: Decade by Decade at a library near you. Building on What we Know The Soviet Union launched the world's first space station, Salyut 1, on April 19, 1971. Since then, we have learned a lot about living in space.

Many of the procedures and systems on the current space station reflect this history. The first space station crew, Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Vladimir Shatalov, and Alexei Yelisyev, arrived at the Salyut 1 three days after its launch. But they couldn't get in. Something was wrong with the hatch. Running low on supplies, they had to leave after 6 hours. [Ref. 1] You can be sure that later hatch designs were easier to open. The second crew, Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev, got in okay and stayed for 24 days. They were the first people to spend that long in space. But on June 30, 1971, tragedy struck. The ground team sent to greet the returning heroes opened the hatch of their spaceship to a terrible sight. The three men were dead. A valve had opened by mistake in space and let all the air out of the ship. With no space suits to provide air, the cosmonauts died before reaching the ground. [Ref. 2] Now, all cosmonauts wear suits for launch and landing.

The world's second space station, Salyut 2, launched in April of 1973. It had been in space less than two weeks when the engine exploded. The space station tumbled out of control and crashed to Earth in May. Luckily, there were no cosmonauts onboard. The next space station was a secret one called Cosmos 557. Its main job was to provide spy photos of the ground as it flew overhead. But before a crew got there, it too went out of control. It burned up in May of 1973. [Ref. 1] The Soviets then designed more reliable engines. That same month, the United States launched its first space station. This was Skylab, an orbital workshop for three people. To save money, the Americans used leftover Apollo boosters, called Saturn V's, for their space station. The Saturn V's were gigantic, so Skylab ended up three and a half times bigger than a Salyut. [Ref. 3] Skylab's first crew, Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz, showed the value of having human problem-solvers in orbit.

During a rough ride to orbit (the crew rode up separately), Skylab was damaged. It was short of power and unable to get rid of its heat. Unless the crew could fix things quickly, the space station was doomed. A NASA technician with a reputation as a 'fix-it' man, started thumbing through the yellow pages. He found what he was looking for — fishing poles that would telescope down to 18 inches. Using the poles as ribs, NASA engineers designed a collapsible nylon umbrella to shade the station from the sun. The crew took it with them when they launched a few days later. Like a parasol out a car window, they popped it out an 8x8 inch scientific airlock. [Ref. 4] The station was then cool enough to function. Further demonstrating the importance of having humans on the job, they did a spacewalk to free a solar array to restore power. Skylab was fixed. [Ref. 5] The next crew (July - August 1973) set a record of 58 days in space -- the first time the United States had a crew in space longer than the Soviets.

One of the astronauts was Alan Bean, the first person to both walk on the Moon and live on a space station. The other crew members were Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma. The third crew of Skylab (Carr, Gibson, Pogue) were in orbit and away from their families for 84 days. (Count 84 days back on your calendar. If you had been in space, what holidays would you have celebrated there?) A mission this long was a new challenge for the ground team as well as the crew. For example, Skylab crews brought back 175,000 pictures of the sun and about 40 miles (64 km) of electronic data tape to process. [Ref. 3] The current space station uses real-time computerized data sets and digital cameras whose images can be automatically processed by the space station control center. Also, astronauts returning from these long missions were too weak to stand, let alone escape if there had been a landing emergency. As a result, exercise equipment became a requirement of all long space missions. The United States abandoned Skylab in February 1974. There simply was no way to get there.

(The last Apollo ship was used for the Apollo-Soyuz mission and the space shuttle was not ready until 1981.) The current space station is reached by space shuttles as well as Russian rockets. The Soviets launched Salyut 3 in June of 1974, Salyut 4 in December 1974, and Salyut 5 in June of 1976. [Ref. 1] Because of the new rule to wear space suits, crews were limited to two men each until a new design in 1979. They tried to break the American's record of time in space, but technical problems kept them from it until Salyut 6. A limiting factor on time in orbit was how much supplies the crew could bring with them. The Soviets solved this problem by designing Salyut 6 with two docking ports. One was always occupied by their return/escape ship. The other was used for visiting ships. Supplies were unloaded from unmanned cargo ships. Then the rocket was used to 'take out the trash,' solving another problem of long missions. Sometimes the extra port was used for manned ships.

The first visitor to a space station was Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia who visited Salyut 6 in 1978. [Ref. 6] Salyut 7, launched in 1982, had lots of problems. The radios broke, the power failed, and the water pipes leaked. The Soviets added new solar panels and chemical batteries and fixed the water pipes. [Ref. 1] However, there was one problem they could not solve. The sun was in a cycle of increased activity. This caused the Earth's atmosphere to get hotter and expand. Like steam lifting the lid off of a pan on the stove, the expanding atmosphere ran into Salyut 7. The Soviets boosted it to a higher orbit. But like an old car, it used a lot of fuel. After operating far longer than any previous station, it was abandoned in 1986. It fell to Earth over Argentina in 1991. [Ref. 6] The next space station was called Mir which means 'peace' in Russian. This space station was launched in February 1986. Unlike the Salyuts, it was designed for expansion.

New modules were docked and moved to ports using a robot arm. Two modules were added to the Mir core before 1990, and four more by 1996. Improved engines were able to keep this biggest-ever station from being dragged down like the Salyuts. This capability plus continued use of supply ships allowed Mir cosmonauts to become the first humans ever to spend more than a year in orbit. [Ref. 2] After the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia decided not to replace the aging Mir. Instead they joined the United States, Canada, Japan, and ten European countries as partners in the International Space Station program. Mir became a place to test new station procedures and equipment. In March of 1995, American Dr. Norman Thagard spent 3 months on Mir with two Russian cosmonauts. [Ref. 7] The mixing of cultures had some unexpected results. Doctors decided that Dr. Thagard had lost weight in part because he didn't care for pickled perch, a standard item on the Russian menu. This prompted both countries to add more variety to their menus.

The next year, Shannon Lucid set a world duration record (188 days) for women in space, apparently satisfied with space station food. Five more Americans gained valuable experience by living on the Mir between 1996 and 1998. These were John Blaha, Jerry Linenger, Michael Foale, David Wolf, and Andy Thomas. A dangerous fire erupted during Dr. Linenger's flight in February, 1997. The crew donned oxygen masks as the station filled with smoke. They put the fire out without any long-term damage. Because of shift schedules, NASA wasn't told of the accident until the next day. As a result, ground communications were improved. In June 1997, a Progress supply ship crashed into the Mir. Air rushed out of a hole in the Spektr science module where Michael Foale spent most of his time. The crew cut power cables and sealed the hatch, plunging the station into darkness. Only their quick actions prevented a total loss of the station and an emergency crew return. Weeks later, Foale and Anatoly Solovyev did a space walk to regain power. [Ref. 8] This proved the wisdom of having modular designs.

Even though the Spektr module was permanently damaged, the rest of the station kept working. The first piece of the International Space Station - named Zarya for sunrise in Russian - was launched unmanned from Kazakstan in November, 1998. A few weeks later, the crew of space shuttle flight STS-88 arrived to connect the second piece, Unity. However, because of financial woes in Russia, the critical third module, Zvezda (meaning star), was delayed, and then delayed again. The delays cost NASA millions of dollars. Politicians called the partnership between the U.S. and Russia a mistake. Yet the U.S. did not have a booster powerful enough to keep a large space station in orbit. And Russia couldn't afford to build and maintain a station alone. The partners needed each other. Zvezda finally launched successfully in July of 2000. Several space shuttle flights quickly followed to provide equipment. Then the first Expedition crew rode a Soyuz rocket to their new home, arriving in November, 2000. American Bill Shepard and Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev christened the new station, Alpha, though its official name remained International Space Station.

The second Expedition crew, Russian Yuri Usachev, and Americans Jim Voss and Susan Helms, replaced the first crew in March of 2001. Meanwhile, time ran out for Mir. Efforts to raise enough money to maintain it failed. After 15 years in orbit, the abandoned Mir met a fiery end over the Pacific Ocean on March 23, 2001. [Ref. 9] We have certainly learned a lot since the days of Salyut 1. Some of the lessons have been costly and painful. But we continue to explore because history has taught us we can only achieve if we keep trying. References 1. Space Age, 1993; 2. Interview with Dr. Jack Bacon (NASA-JSC), 3-16-96; 3. "Space Exploration," Microsoft (R) Encarta. c. 1994 Microsoft & Funk & Wagnall's Corp.; 4. 5-30-73 LA Times newspaper; 5. Dr. Joseph Kerwin, phone interview, 6-97; 6. "North Texas Spacecraft," March 16, 1996; 7.

"NASA Space News Roundup," NASA JSC, 1995. 8. "NASA Space News Roundup," NASA JSC, June 5, 1998. 9. 3-01. Mir Space Station | Soyuz in Pravda | Soyuz Recovery | Mir Expeditions | Mir Space Station The space station Mir became a legend in its own time reflecting Russiaï¿½s past space glories and her future as a leader in space. The Russian Space Station Mir endured 15 years in orbit, three times its planned lifetime. It outlasted the Soviet Union, that launched it into space. It hosted scores of crewmembers and international visitors. It raised the first crop of wheat to be grown from seed to seed in outer space. It was the scene of joyous reunions, feats of courage, moments of panic, and months of grim determination. It suffered dangerous fires, a nearly catastrophic collision, and darkened periods of out-of-control tumbling. Mir soared as a symbol of Russiaï¿½s past space glories and her potential future as a leader in space.

And it served as the stageï¿½historyï¿½s highest stageï¿½for the first large-scale, technical partnership between Russia and the United States after a half-century of mutual antagonism. Mir did all of that and like most legends was controversial and paradoxical. At different times and by different people, Mir was called both "venerable" and "derelict." It was also "robust," "accident-prone," and "a marvel," as well as "a lemon." For Russians, the very name "Mir" held meaning, feeling, and history. Mir translates into English as "world," "peace," and "village," but a single-word translation misses its full significance. Historically, after the Edict of Emancipation in 1861, the word "mir" referred to a Russian peasant community that owned its own land. A system of state-owned collective farms replaced the mir after the Russian revolution of 1917.

Read an essay by Frank Culbertson, Shuttle-Mir Program Manager, on the meanings of "Mir: Whatï¿½s in a Name?" As with most legends, Mir was literally beyond the reach of most men and women, but it could be seen by many as a bright light arcing across the night sky. Mir undoubtedly provoked many thoughts around the globe about who weï¿½as a human raceï¿½are and where we are going. The cosmonauts and astronauts who were fortunate enough to travel to Mir were always impressed by its appearance. Regardless, Mir remained difficult to describe. Someone once called Mir a 100-ton Tinker Toy, a term that recalled Mirï¿½s construction. Adding modules over the years, and then sometimes rearranging them, the Russians had built the strangest, biggest structure ever seen in outer space. Traveling at an average speed of 17,885 mph, the space station orbited about 250 miles above the Earth. Mir was both great and gracefulï¿½and incongruous and awkwardï¿½all at the same time.

In outward appearance, Mir has also been compared to a dragonfly with its wings outstretched, and to a hedgehog whose spines could pierce a spacewalkerï¿½s suit. NASA-4 Mir Astronaut Jerry Linenger compared Mir to "six school buses all hooked together. It was as if four of the buses were driven into a four-way intersection at the same time. They collided and became attached. All at right angles to each other, these four buses made up the four Mir science modules. ï¿½ Priroda and Spektr were relatively new additions ï¿½ and looked itï¿½each sporting shiny gold foil, bleached-white solar blankets, and unmarred thruster pods. Kvant-2 and Kristall ï¿½ showed their age. Solar blankets were yellowed ï¿½ and looked as drab as a Moscow winter and were pockmarked with raggedy holes, the result of losing battles with micrometeorite and debris strikes over the years." On the inside, Mir often surprised people, too, even when they thought they were ready for the view.

By the time Americans arrived on Mirï¿½nearly a decade into its lifeï¿½the station had become cluttered with used-up and broken equipment and floating bags of trash. During Mirï¿½s lifetime, no adequate remedy was ever developed to deal with the stowage situation. Mir looked like a metal rabbit warren, or, as Mike Foale put it, "a bit like a frat house, but more organized and better looked after." Still, Mir was home and shelter to its crews, and how it looked to them depended on their perspectives and situations. The ivory-like controls of the Base Block reminded David Wolf of classic science-fiction stories, such as The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. After a fly-around in the cramped Soyuz capsule, Jerry Linenger wrote: "Looking into the station I could see a lone ray of light shining through the port widow and outlining the dining table. We had left some food out for dinner. It was the only time during my stay in space that Mir looked warm, inviting, and spacious. It reminded me of opening the door to a summer cottage that been boarded up for the winter, looking inside, and seeing familiar surroundings." Mir set every record in long-duration spaceflight.

Physician Valeri Polyakov lived aboard Mir for a single, continuous-orbit stay of 437 days, 17 hours and 38 minutes. He completed his stay in 1995 as American Norm Thagard began his Mir residency. Polyakov's experiences contributed greatly to the biomedical studies of long-term human spaceflight conducted by the Institute of Biomedical Problems, where he served as Deputy Director. Combined with an earlier Mir expedition flight, the Russian cosmonaut spent a total 678 days, 16 hours and 33 minutes on the Russian space station. However, his achievement for total time in space was surpassed in 1999 by Sergei Avdeyev who endured a total 747 days, 14 hours and 12 minutes, during three space missions. During Shuttle-Mir, Shannon Lucid set the space endurance record for women in 1996 when she spent 188 days, 4 hours and 00 minutes in orbit. Just as "mir"ï¿½the wordï¿½had many meanings for Russians, Mirï¿½the placeï¿½provoked many different feelings.

In February 1995, Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov flew aboard the "near Mir" flight, STS-63, when the Shuttle rendezvoused with Mir. Six years earlier, Titov had spent a year aboard Mir as an expedition member, when Mir consisted of only the Base Block, the two Kvant modules, a Soyuz, and a Progress spacecraft. About seeing Mir again, Titov said, "It was very wonderful, a wonderful view." STS-63 did not dock, but Titov visited Mir again as a crewmember of STS-86. Alas, the sturdy Mir was built on a sinking foundation. Without repeated boostings, all things in low Earth orbit must eventually come down. With the new International Space Station requiring much of the Russian space programï¿½s attention and financing, the Mir Space Station was doomed to be deorbited. A strong effort rallied in Russia to keep Mir aloft; and at one point, Russian State Duma representatives were calling for the firing of Yuri Koptev from his post as the head of Russiaï¿½s aerospace agency.

However, on December 30, 2000, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed a resolution calling for Mir to be sunk into the ocean, early in 2001. Concerns circled the globe about Mir crashing into populated areas. Mirï¿½s path crossed over nearly every city on Earth. Its orbits tracked over everything between 51 degrees North and South latitude, roughly within the limits of the Aleutian Islands to the north and the southern Andes Mountains to the south. Pieces of previous large spacecraft had landed in Canada, Australia, and southern South America, albeit fortunately without any damages or casualties. For Mir, Russia acquired insurance in the event that its deorbit caused some physical damage. Japan kept a close watch because the final orbit would bring the Mir over the island nation. The U.S. government provided Russia with tracking and trajectory data, atmospheric conditions, and even solar activity, which can cause the Earthï¿½s atmosphere to expand farther into space.

Although there was considerable certainty that debris could be limited to falling in the ocean, Yuri Semenov, RSC Energia President, was quoted as saying, "We donï¿½t have a 100-percent safety guarantee." After more than 86,000 total orbits, Mir re-entered Earthï¿½s atmosphere on Friday, March 23, 2001, at 9 a.m. Moscow time. The 134-ton space structure broke up over the southern Pacific Ocean. Some of its larger pieces blazed harmlessly into the sea, about 1,800 miles east of New Zealand. Observers in Fiji reported spectacular gold- and white-streaming lights. An amazing saga and a highly successful program finally had come to a watery end. Anatoly Solovyev had lived a total of 651 days on Mir and served as Mir-24 commander for Americans Mike Foale and David Wolf. He was quoted in Star City as saying, "I am especially sad these days.

An entire era of our Soviet space program is ending, into which we invested not only our money but, what is more important, our intellectual potential." The Russiansï¿½ investment began when a Soviet Proton launcher boosted Mirï¿½s Base Block (core module) into orbit on February 20, 1986. This module resembled the existing Salyut-7 space station, but Mirï¿½s design called for expansion through the addition of future modules. Mirï¿½s first crew arrived in mid-March 1986, and the inaugural crew of Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyev stayed aboard until May 5, 1986. This Solovyev would later become the Russian cochair of the Flight Operations Working Group for the Shuttle-Mir Program. And it was he who took charge of the Moscow Mission Control Center immediately after the Progress resupply vehicle collided with Mir, during NASA-5 Mir Astronaut Mike Foaleï¿½s residency. In 1987, the Soviets added Mirï¿½s first expansion module, Kvant-1, and had the worldï¿½s first modular space station.

They still needed a more versatile way of transporting crews and equipment to and from Mirï¿½something like the American Space Shuttle. In 1988, the Soviets launched the Buran, a winged, reusable space vehicle and a close copy of the U.S. Shuttle. Its first flight was near perfect. However, at this point in history, the Soviet Union was crumbling. No further Buran flights were attempted; four planned orbiters remained unfinished. The Soyuz-TM vehicle and Progress-M resupply (cargo) vehicle became the transports of crews and supplies to the Mir. The Kvant-1 featured a docking port to accommodate the arrival of these spacecraft. The system worked well as the Russian space station was unoccupied on only five brief occasions until its deorbit on March 23, 2001. During its existence, the station had remained almost continuously occupied for nine years. Mir continued to expand during the next years with the additions of modules for research and residence. Kvant-2 arrived in November 1989 with an airlock that allowed crewmembers access to the outside of the complex for extravehicular activities.

Kristall, launched at the end of May 1990, housed Earth observation instruments and was used for semiconductor and biological experiments. Five years later, Spektr, a remote-sensing module for geophysical sciences, was added to the Mir. On June 29, 1995, U.S. Space Shuttles began docking with the Russian space station. Before this first docking, the Mir-19 crew used the Lyappa manipulator arm to relocate the Kristall, thus allowing ample clearance for Atlantis. In November 1995, a new docking module arrived via STS-74 and was attached to the Kristall to provide means for future dockings without interference. The next year, on April 23, 1996, the final module, the Priroda, was added to the Mir. The complex retained a docked Soyuz-TM vehicle at all times as this spacecraft served as the crewï¿½s "lifeboat." The vehicle carried a maximum of three persons, took two to three days to reach its destination, and could remain docked with the Mir for approximately 200 days before its orbital lifetime limit expired.

The resident Soyuz was used for an occasional, scheduled "fly-around" of the T-shaped Mir, but crews primarily ventured outside for extravehicular activities (EVAs). During Mirï¿½s lifetime, crewmembers spent more than 325 hours as part of 75 planned spacewalks to conduct research and repairs on the exterior of the structure. Additional hours were spent during three intravehicular walks inside the unpressurized Spektr module. Participants in the Mir EVAs included 29 Russian cosmonauts, 3 U.S. astronauts, 2 French astronauts, and 1 European Space Agency astronaut who was a citizen of Germany. Cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev donned the Russian Orlan spacesuit for 16 spacewalks for a total time of 77 hours, 46 minutesï¿½more EVA time than any other spacewalker in the world. After the Russian space station moved into its second decade, the Mir became notorious as an accident-prone spacecraft, even as it remained unparalleled in continuous service. A 15-minute fire in an oxygen-generating device imperiled the station in February 1997.

Failures of the Elektron electrolysis oxygen-enerating units and problems with attitude and environmental controls often seemed to alternate with computer malfunctions and power outages. The June 1997 collision with the Progress supply vehicle breached the integrity of the Spektrï¿½s hull and rendered that module uninhabitable. But, Mir remained; and its space explorers endured. Over its lifetime, the space station hosted 125 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 different nations. It supported 17 space expeditions, including 28 long-term crews. Its residents arrived via the 31 spacecraft that docked with Mir; nine of the dockings involved the Space Shuttle. Additionally, 64 uncrewed cargo vessels ferried supplies and equipment periodically to Mir. And, it served as a floating laboratory for 23,000 scientific and medical experiments. Although Mir was gone by early 2001 and the International Space Station (ISS) was growing rapidly in orbit, the U.S. and Russia were still using spacecraft as statecraft. On March 23ï¿½the same day as Mirï¿½s deorbitï¿½Russia expelled four U.S.

diplomats and said it would expel 46 more, in retaliation for the American expulsion of 50 Russian diplomats for espionage-like activities. It wasnï¿½t the Cold War, all over again, but international tensions were certainly continuing, and the need remained for a worthy program for U.S. and Russian cooperation. One could still apply to the ISS the same hopes that Shuttle Commander Charlie Precourt had held for it during Shuttle-Mir. Precourt had predicted that the ISS would "provide the psychological impetus for politicians to force themselves to find an agreement to disputes that otherwise they wouldnï¿½tï¿½because theyï¿½ll all look up there and say, ï¿½Well, we have an investment in that, too. We have to keep this relationship going in a proper direction.ï¿½" Although the U.S.-Russian relationship was still going in the "proper direction," toward continued cooperation in space, the proper use and the funding of ISS were still in question. NASA cost overruns for the ISS clouded the programï¿½s future, and Russiaï¿½s foreign department was threatening to reduce its participation in the ISS.

To make the situation even more complicated, the ISS partner nations were discussing whether Russia should launch a wealthy, American "space tourist" to the space station. Notwithstanding all the diplomatic wrangling, Mirï¿½s demise also coincided neatly with the successful finish to the first U.S.-Russian expedition to the ISS. On March 22, 2001, Expedition One crewmembers Sergei Krikalev, Yuri Gidzenko, and Commander William Shepherd returned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. They received a ride from STS-102 Shuttle Commander James Wetherbee and a crew that included former Mir resident Andy Thomas. STS-102 had ferried the Expedition Two crew of James Voss, Susan Helms, and Commander Yury Usachev to the station. Just as the ISS itself grew out of the lessons of Mir, many of the principal people in the ISS Program drew from their experiences during the Shuttle-Mir Program. And, in Houston and in Moscow, American and Russian managers, engineers and technicians who had worked in the Shuttle-Mir Program were working to make the ISS a success. The International Space Station was growing, but the memories of Mir refused to fade.

Indeed, people had anticipated its demise for long enough that, even before it fell, it had entered nostalgia. In a 1998 interview, Vladimir Semyachkin reflected on Mir. He had developed the motion control systems and navigation systems for all vehicles and stations that were produced and launched into space by RSC Energia. Semyachkin, as much as anyone, had wrestled with Mirï¿½s problems. He said: "Itï¿½s a shameï¿½. Our child, who we gave birth to so many years ago, ï¿½ weï¿½re going to have to put it to sleep. But, on the other hand, we understand that sometimes thereï¿½s nothing to be doneï¿½. One cannot sit, as it were, on two chairs at the same time.

Nevertheless, despite this sorrow with ï¿½ regard to Mir, we nonetheless do look forward to the future with a great deal of hope." Landed in Space Shuttle Atlantis July 7, 1995 The major objectives of the Mir-18 mission were to conduct joint U.S.-Russian medical research and weightlessness effects investigations; to reconfigure the station for the arrival of the Spektr science module; and to welcome the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The mission saw the first American to be part of a Mir crew, NASA-1 Mir Astronaut Norman Thagard (left), the addition of the first new module (Spektr) since Kristall arrived in 1990, and the first docking of a U.S. Space Shuttle (STS-71) with the Mir complex. Pictured with Thagard are Commander Vladimir Dezhurov (center) and Flight Engineer Gennady Strekalov (right). Mir Principal Expedition 19 Landed in Soyuz-TM 21 September 11, 1995 The only complete Mir mission of 1995 with an all-Russian crew, Mir-19 had many international elements.

As the first Mir crew launched on a Space Shuttle (STS-71, Atlantis), Commander Anatoly Solovyev (right) and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin (left) began their work in conjunction with the visiting U.S. crew and departing Mir-18 international crew. Two of their extravehicular activities involved deploying and retrieving international experiments. They ended their stay by welcoming the incoming international Euromir 95 crew. Mir Principal Expedition 20 Launched and landed in Soyuz-TM 22 September 3, 1995ï¿½February 27, 1996 Mir-20 was the second Mir mission with a Euromir designation and the second with a European Space Agency astronaut as part of the crew. Cosmonaut Researcher Thomas Reiter (center) was the first non-Russian Mir crewmember with the added designation of Flight Engineer. Mir-20 was also the second Mir mission to include a U.S. Space Shuttle docking (STS-74, Atlantis). During that phase of the mission, the station complex housed crewmembers from four countries. Representing Russia were Commander Yuri Gidzenko, (left) and Flight Engineer Sergei Avdeyev (right).

Reiter represented Germany as a member of the European Space Agency. Chris Hadfield, representing the Canadian Space Agency, arrived with the STS-74 crewï¿½U.S. astronauts Kenneth Cameron, James Halsell, Jr., Jerry Ross, and William McArthur, Jr. Mir Principal Expedition 21 Launched and landed in Soyuz-TM 23 February 21ï¿½September 2, 1996 Commander Yuri Onufriyenko (right) and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev (center) began their mission without the third crewmember, NASA-2 Mir Astronaut Shannon Lucid (left), who would join them on March 23 during STS-76, the third Atlantis-Mir docking mission. On one of the seven extravehicular activities during Mir-21, two STS-76 astronauts, Linda Godwin and Michael (Rich) Clifford, walked outside Mir; the first U.S. extravehicular activity (EVA) outside the two mated spacecraft and the first U.S. spacewalk outside a space station since Skylabï¿½22 years earlier.

On two other EVAs, Onufriyenko and Usachev installed a new solar array on the Kvant module. In May 1996, the last permanent module was added to the complex, Priroda, with its large complement of Earth science experiments. Mir Principal Expedition 22 Launched and landed in Soyuz-TM 24 August 17, 1996ï¿½March 2, 1997 Commander Valeri Korzun (top right), Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri (top left), and French Researcher Claudie Andre-Deshays (bottom center) joined Shannon Lucid (top center) and the Mir-21 crew, Commander Yuri Onufriyenko (bottom right) and Flight Engineer Yury Usachev (bottom left), on Mir. Andre-Deshays returned to Earth with the Mir-21 crew after about two weeks onboard the station. Lucidï¿½s stay with the Mir-22 Expedition crew was lengthened about six weeks due to a Space Shuttle launch postponement.

STS-79 launched on September 16, 1996, delivering NASA-3 resident John Blaha and returning home with Lucid onboard on September 26. STS-81 launched on January 12, 1997, with the next U.S. resident, Jerry Linenger, who later performed a spacewalk in a Russian Orlan spacesuit. Mir Principal Expedition 23 Launched and landed Soyuz-TM 25 February 10, 1997ï¿½August 14, 1997 Mir-23 had more troubles than any other Mir expedition, including an onboard fire that occurred early in the mission with six crewmembers onboardï¿½Mir-22 crew, Valeri Korzun, Alexander Kaleri and German Researcher Reinhold Ewald; Mir-23 crew, Commander Vasily Tsibliev (left) and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin (right); and NASA-4 resident Jerry Linenger (center).

Challenges continued for the Mir-23 crew after NASA-5 Mir Astronaut Mike Foale arrived on STS-84, when a Progress resupply vehicle collided with Mirï¿½s Spektr module, causing a loss of station control and depressurization. Mir Principal Expedition 24 Launched and landed Soyuz-TM 26 August 5, 1997ï¿½February 15, 1998 Mir-24 hosted three American astronauts, NASA-5 resident Mike Foale, NASA-6 resident David Wolf (center), and NASA-7 resident Andy Thomas. Mir continued to have systems problems, but overall conditions improved. Wolf performed an extravehicular activity with Commander Anatoly Solovyev (right). Also onboard Mir-24 was Flight Engineer Pavel Vinogradov (left). Mir Principal Expedition 25 Launched and landed Soyuz-TM 27 January 29, 1998ï¿½August 25, 1998 Mir-25 was the last Shuttle-Mir expedition.

French Astronaut Leopold Eyharts flew to Mir with the Mir-25 crew and returned to Earth with the Mir-24 crew. Russian Phase 1 Manager Valery Ryumin visited Mir with the crew of STS-91, which brought NASA-7 Mir Astronaut Andy Thomas back to Earth. Mir-25 crewmembers were Commander Talgat Musabayev and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin. Pictured are (top row, left to right) Ryumin, STS-91 crewmember Wendy Lawrence, Thomas, STS-91 crewmember Janet Kavandi, Budarin; (bottom row, left to right) STS-91 Commander Charlie Precourt, Musabayev, and STS-91 crewmembers Dominic Gorie and Franklin Chang-Diaz. The ISS | Technology Bloggers Technology Bloggers Leave a reply Christopher Roberts The International Space Station is amazing. Humanity has a permanently manned space station. You may think I’m saying that in every article of this series, and I probably am. But that’s because space and our accomplishments are quite frankly brilliant! Mir The International Space Station (or ISS) is not the first manned space station.

The Russian space station Mir is widely considered the first successful long-term space station. Before the launch of the ISS, Mir was the largest satellite in orbit, and until 2010 when its record was surpassed by the ISS, Mir housed the longest continuous human presence in space; an impressive 10 years. The Russians were leaders in space station technology, and without their expertise, I would argue the ISS would not be here today. A Joint Venture The ISS is a joint space venture between Russia, the United States, the European Space Agency (the people who put Philae on a comet ) Japan, Canada and Brazil. The station was initially launched in in 1998 and has been continually manned since November 2000. Currently the station’s future is confirmed until 2020. It’s long-term future is to be determined by the relations between its key partners, the US and Russia. The ISS is constantly being improved and upgraded, and is still being built. Amongst their most recent upgrades, includes the installation of a 3D printer . All the add-ons and upgrades are making the station heavier and heavier, and it now weighs more than 400 tonnes!

But don’t worry, it isn’t going to fall from the sky any time soon. The ISS can be seen from Earth, and if you have a pretty jazzy telescope, then you can view it in pretty remarkable detail. If you want to give it a go, check out NASA’s ISS spotters guide . The ISS as photographed through a telescope on Earth. You can also track the ISS, and see exactly where above the Earth it is in real time. Check out this site which has a live view of what part of the planet the station is over. You may be surprised just how quickly it is moving! Next Week After the Thursday post last week and yesterdays site issues, I’m hoping that next Monday’s post will go without a hitch! See you then. Mir | Soviet-Russian space station | Britannica.com Soviet-Russian space station Energia Mir, Soviet/ Russian modular space station , the core module (base block) of which was launched into Earth orbit by the U.S.S.R. in 1986. Over the next decade additional modules were sent aloft on separate launch vehicles and attached to the core unit, creating a large habitat that served as a versatile space laboratory for more than 14 years.

Russian space station Mir, backdropped against Cook Strait near New Zealand’s South Island, as … NASA Mir (Russian: “Peace” or “World”) was the third generation of space stations developed by the Soviet Union. Its core module resembled its simpler predecessors in the Salyut series but had additional docking ports (a total of six) that accommodated not only a succession of manned spacecraft and cargo ferries but also permanently attached expansion modules equipped for scientific research. Mir’s core module was launched on Feb. 20, 1986. It had the form of a stepped cylinder about 13 metres (43 feet) long and 4.2 metres (13.8 feet) in diameter at its widest point. The module had a docking port at each end and four ports sited radially at its forward end. On March 13, 1986, cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov were sent aloft aboard a Soyuz T spacecraft to rendezvous with Mir and become its first occupants.

Between March 1987 and April 1996, five expansion modules were added to the core unit— Kvant 1 (1987), an astrophysics observatory; Kvant 2 (1989), containing supplementary life-support equipment and a large airlock; Kristall (1990), a materials-sciences laboratory; and Spektr (1995) and Priroda (1996), two science modules containing remote-sensing instruments for ecological and environmental studies of Earth. With the exception of its first occupants, Mir’s cosmonaut crews traveled between the station and Earth in upgraded Soyuz TM spacecraft, and supplies were transported by robotic Progress cargo ferries. Soviet/Russian space station Mir, after completion in 1996. The date shown for each module is its … Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. International Space Station (ISS) Mir supported human habitation from March 14, 1986, to June 15, 2000, which included an uninterrupted stretch of occupancy of almost 10 years.

It hosted more than 100 people from 12 countries, including a series of U.S. astronauts in 1995–98 as part of a Mir– space shuttle cooperative endeavour. Between January 1994 and March 1995, Mir cosmonaut-physician Valery Polyakov set an endurance record of 438 continuous days in space, longer than the approximately nine months estimated for a manned voyage to the planet Mars . Designed for only a five-year life, the aging Mir suffered a series of equipment failures and accidents in 1996–97 but remained in service. On March 23, 2001, the abandoned Mir made a controlled reentry, with the surviving pieces falling into the Pacific Ocean . (See also Energia .) A chronology of missions to Mir is shown in the table. Chronology of manned missions to Mir space station mission

Question: What was the name of Russia's first permanently manned space station, launched in 1988?
Answer: MIR