Mir Space Shuttle

Nasa's Missions:

NASA's has visited Mir on Shuttle missions:

1. STS-60

2.  STS-63

3. STS-71

4. STS-74

In November 1995 Chris Hadfield served as Mission Specialist 1 on STS-74, NASA's second space shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. During the flight, the crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis attached a five-tonne docking module to Mir and transferred over 1,000 kg of food, water and scientific supplies to the cosmonauts. Hadfield flew as the first Canadian mission specialist, the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in orbit and the only Canadian to ever board Mir.

5. STS-76

6, STS-79

7. STS-81

8. STS-84

9. STS-86

10. STS-89

11, STS-91

History

As early as 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev began talks to cooperate in space. The first major effort at working together was the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. In 1992, the U.S. and the new Russian Federation renewed the 1987 space cooperation agreement and issued a "Joint Statement on Cooperation in Space." Subsequent additions to the agreement outline the development of the NASA-Mir program. By the time cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev became the first Russian to fly aboard a space shuttle in February 1994, plans for U.S.-Russian cooperation in space had moved well beyond Shuttle-Mir to the International Space Station.

The Shuttle-Mir Program was filled with historic 'firsts.' Besides Krikalev's flight as the first Russian aboard a shuttle, astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American aboard the Mir Space Station, where he spent 115 days with his Russian counterparts in March-July 1995. Later that year, STS-71 became the first shuttle to dock with Mir.

Between March 1995 and May 1998, NASA and Russian scientists conducted experiments designed to answer vital questions about how humans, animals and plants function in space, how our solar system originated and developed, how we can build better technology in space and how we can build future space stations. From February 1994 to June 1998, space shuttles made 11 flights to the Russian space station Mir and American astronauts spent seven residencies onboard Mir. Space shuttles also conducted crew exchanges and delivered supplies and equipment.

Did you know?

* Jerry Linenger was the first US Astronaut to perform a space walk in a Russian space suit from Mir Space Station using the Russian Orlan-M Suit. Jerry Lineger was the first American to undock from a space station aboard two different spacecraft (Russian Soyuz and U.S. Shuttle)

* Norman E. Thagard was the first astronaut to launch on a Russian rocket. The spacecraft was the Soyuz TM-21 and was launched on March 14, 1995 on a visit to the Mir Space Station.

* American Astronaut Shannon W. Lucid spent the most time in space during the 20th century with just over 5,351 hours in Shuttles and on the Mir Space Station.

Books:

Russian Spacesuits by Isaak P. Abramov, A. Ingemar Skoog from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Bn.com

Reference:

• http://www.maximov.com/Mir/homepage.asp