![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
You are in: Science/Nature | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
Thursday, 15 March, 2001, 13:31 GMT
Mir: A timeline
Mir has been visited by around 100 people
Mir has been circling the Earth for more than 15 years. It has had an eventful life, including a near-fatal collision with cargo ship in June 1997 and an on-board fire earlier that year.
February, 1986 - The core module, Mir's first building block, is launched. March 1986 - The first crew, the Russian cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov, arrive on the Soyuz T-15 spacecraft. August 1988 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov begins his record breaking 438-day stay on Mir. February 1991 - Five years after the launch, Mir passes its predicted lifespan in space. May 1991 - Helen Sharman becomes the first British astronaut on Mir. May 1995 - Spektr module, carrying Earth observation equipment, is launched. June 1995 - Atlantis becomes the first US shuttle to dock with Mir. It carries two cosmonauts to Mir and brings two cosmonauts and an astronaut back to Earth. September 1996 - US astronaut Shannon Lucid returns to Earth from a 188-day mission to Mir and becomes the female world record holder for time spent in space. February 1997 - A fire breaks out after an oxygen-generating canister malfunctions. The crew almost abandon ship. June 1997 - The unmanned cargo ship Progress M-34 collides with Mir, causing extensive damage to the Spektr module and solar panels. June 1997 - On-board computer crashes. An electrical fault is blamed. July 1997 - Russian cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin accidentally disconnects a power plug prematurely, setting Mir adrift. March 1998 - A spacewalk is postponed after a spanner used to unlock an exit hatch breaks. June 1998 - Last US Shuttle mission to Mir. Discovery picks up Andrew Thomas, the seventh and last American to serve on Mir. November 1998 - The Russians launch the first module of the new International Space Station (ISS). June 1999 - Mir cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev becomes the person with the longest total stay in space, 681 days. August 1999 - Cosmonauts Sergei Avdeyev, Viktor Afanasyev and French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haignere crew leave Mir and the space station is mothballed. February 2000 - Private company MirCorp announces $20m investment in Mir to turn it into hotel. April 2000 - Two Russian cosmonauts arrive at Mir to plug air leaks and restore craft to working order. November 2000 - Russian Government takes final decision to abandon the station. 22 March 2001 - The empty Mir is scheduled to be taken out of orbit and ditched into the Pacific Ocean. 2000 and beyond - The ISS will become humankind's one, permanent base in space. |
![]() |
Internet links:
![]() The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Science/Nature stories now:
![]() ![]() Links to more Science/Nature stories are at the foot of the page.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Links to more Science/Nature stories |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> | To BBC World Service>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |