The word mir means "peace," but to millions of Russians it is associated with a symbol of national pride. The space station Mir claimed a number of distinctions that are unmatched, even in the early twenty-first century, by the spacecraft of other nations. This station, once a national symbol of the Soviet Union, is gone, replaced by the joint effort of numerous countries to create the new International Space Station.

The History of Mir

The first component of Mir, its core module, was launched on February 20, 1986. It would take ten years for Mir's construction to be completed, a time frame that does not include the continual supply missions to the station. Mir's main component had six ports for the attachment of other modules. These ports were placed in key locations, allowing the station's configuration to be changed.

Soyuz spacecraft, similar to U.S. Apollo spacecraft, were used for...