Thirty years ago, the Soviet Union launched a core module for an orbital station. Mir was the first modular space station assembled in orbit and finally completed in 1996. The spacecraft was expected to work in three phases of 5 years each. But in fact, the station has worked for more than 15 years and even survived U.S.S.R.
For a long time in orbit, the world has lived a long life, representing a whole story. The station was a pioneer in numerous breakthroughs, but it also had the problems of a classic novice with stories about power failure, accumulation of debris, problems with hygiene and orbital collisions. Even the achievements of the recent enterprises of the International Space Station (ISS) could not overshadow the contribution of the World, which plays an important role for international cooperation and made an invaluable contribution to the science of space flight.
In English, the name of the station “Mir” is translated as “peace” in the sense of the planet and “peace” as “peaceful state”. In its original use, the word “Mir” represented the village, that is, the traditional community “with common goals and values gathered in a place where they were more likely to live a full life as a cohesive group.” About this in 1996 told the former director of the program Shuttle-Mir Frank L. Culbertson. This sense of cooperation properly characterizes life on the space station. Although the World was a Russian space station, it received more than 100 space travelers from dozens of countries around the world, including France, Germany, Japan and even Afghanistan.
American astronauts first arrived on the world in the first 10 years of its existence. After the collapse of the USSR, Russian and American space programs were in danger, as the Americans lost their main competitor in the space race and the Russians suffered an economic collapse. In order for NASA and Roscosmos (the receiver of the Soviet space program) to save their own separate plans, they needed to unite and focus their efforts on a joint project.
The “first stage” of cooperation between the United States and Russia was the Shuttle-World program, in which astronauts of both sides made joint visits. “The second stage” was the construction of the ISS itself.
The world gathered in space all the competing nations on Earth. The station also became an invaluable window, giving the potential for long-term space flight.
The space station set a number of records for the duration of their stay in space. Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov in 1995 set a record of 437 days 17 hours and 38 minutes of uninterrupted stay in orbit Mir. A year later, astronaut Shannon Lucid set a stamina record for women at 188 days and 4 hours in orbit. Their experience opens a window into the study of the physiological and psychological effects of long-term space flight. The world also set up experiments aimed at preserving life in space. The station has grown wheat. It was the first crop obtained from a single seed in outer space. So if people ever have the need to grow, say, potatoes on another planet, then space travelers should thank the World for these experiments.
March 23, 2001 The world met its end, when the Russian space agency allowed the station to descend from orbit, and the 134-ton construction crashed over the Pacific Ocean. Space debris may be in the depths of the ocean, but the legacy that the ISS and future space stations now live in remains unchanged.
