Mir’s first module, (DOS-7)](https://historicspacecraft.com/Mir.html), was launched Feb. 20, 1986, and the last module, Priroda, was launched and added to Mir in April 1996. During its almost 15 years of service, Mir enabled an unprecedented stretch of a continuous human presence in space for almost 10 years, eventually being surpassed by the ISS. Over the course of Mir’s life, cosmonauts carried out approximately 23,000 scientific and medical experiments.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, one cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, was temporarily stranded aboard Mir following the collapse. And while Mir survived several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the construction of the ISS combined with ongoing failures throughout the station forced Russia to eventually retire it, performing a controlled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere on March 23, 2001, disintegrating the record-setting space station.
Russia Space Shuttle Program
The Soviet Union attempted to build its own reusable space shuttle system with Buran (the shuttle) and Energia (the launch vehicle) during the 1980s. Buran only carried out one flight, while Energia only carried out two flights.
Budget constraints coupled with the collapse of the Soviet Union ultimately led to the cancellation of both Buran and Energia.
International Space Station
While Mir was last inhabited by humans in April 2000, a Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz TM-31, successfully delivered Expedition 1 to the ISS in October that same year. This served as the 84th launch of a Soyuz craft.
Since that time, the Soyuz has successfully visited the ISS a total of 61 times. Over that span, only one launch saw a major malfunction. Soyuz MS-10, which lifted off Oct. 11, 2018, experienced a booster failure that led to an emergency abort. Fortunately, the entire crew survived the ordeal.
