Designed by Nigel G Wilcox

Pages within this section: Mir Space Station

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Mir Space Station Missions Patches

Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station (ISS) after Mir's orbit decayed. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space. Mir was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days, until it was surpassed by the ISS on 23 October 2010. It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short visits. Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986 and followed by six further modules. Proton rockets were used to launch all of its components except for the docking module, which was installed by US Space Shuttle mission STS-74 in 1995.

Soyuz T-15
13 March 1986, 12:33:09 UTC
16 July 1986, 12:34:05
Leonid Kizim
Vladimir Solovyov

Delivered the first crew, flying expedition EO-1, to Mir, then undocked, flew to and docked with Salyut 7 before returning to Mir. Remains the only spacecraft to have visited two space stations during one mission.

Soyuz TM-2
5 February 1987, 21:38:16 UTC
30 July 1987, 01:04:12 UTC
Yuri Romanenko
Aleksandr Laveykin
~172 days
Delivered the second crew, flying expedition EO-2, to Mir.

Soyuz TM-3
22 July 1987, 01:59:17 UTC
29 December 1987, 09:16:15 UTC
~158 days
Soviet Union - Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Soviet Union - Aleksandr Viktorenko
Syria - Muhammed Faris
Delivered a third crew member, Aleksandrov, for EO-2, as well as the first Mir Intercosmos mission, EP-1, to the station. The EP-1 crew members, Viktorenko and Faris, returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-2 after 8 days

Soyuz TM-4
21 December 1987,11:18:03 UTC
17 June 1988, 10:12:32 UTC
~177 days
Soviet Union - Vladimir Titov
Soviet Union - Musa Manarov
Soviet Union - Anatoli Levchenko
Delivered the third expedition crew, EO-3, to Mir, in addition to Anatoli Levchenko, who returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-3 with the returning EO-2 crewmembers after 8 days

Soyuz TM-5
7 June 1988, 14:03:13 UTC
7 September 1988, 00:49:38 UTC
~90 days
Soviet Union - Anatoly Solovyev
Soviet Union - Viktor Savinykh
Bulgaria - Aleksandr Aleksandrov
Delivered the second Mir Intercosmos mission, EP-2, to the station. All three crew returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-4 after 10 days.

Soyuz TM-6
29 August 1988, 04:23:11 UTC
21 December 1988, 09:57:00 UTC
~112 days
Soviet Union - Valeri Polyakov
Soviet Union - Vladimir Lyakhov
Afghanistan - Abdul Ahad Mohmand
Delivered a third crew member, Polyakov, for EO-3, in addition to the third Mir Intercosmos crew, EP-3, who returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-5 after 9 days

Soyuz TM-7
26 November 1988, 15:49:34 UTC
27 April 1989, 02:57:58 UTC
~149 days
Soviet Union - Aleksandr Volkov
Soviet Union - Sergei Krikalev
France - Jean-Loup Chrétien
Delivered the EO-4 and Aragatz crews to Mir, with Chrétien returning to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-6 after 25 days.

Soyuz TM-8
5 September 1989, 21:38:03 UTC
19 February 1990, 04:36:18 UTC
~165 days
Soviet Union Aleksandr Viktorenko
Soviet Union Aleksandr Serebrov
Delivered the EO-5 crew to Mir.

Soyuz TM-9
11 February 1990, 06:16:00 UTC
9 August 1990, 07:33:518 UTC
~177 days
Soviet Union Anatoly Solovyev
Soviet Union Aleksandr Balandin
Delivered the EO-6 crew to Mir

Soyuz TM-10
1 August 1990, 09:32:21 UTC
10 December 1990, 06:08:12 UTC
~129 days
Soviet Union - Gennadi Manakov
Soviet Union - Gennady Strekalov