"Men
who have worked together to reach the stars are not
likely to descend together into the depths of war and
desolation."
- U.S. Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson, addressing the
U.N. General Assembly, 1958
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Shuttle-Mir
Phase 1 was a NASA program encompassing 11 Space
Shuttle flights over a four-year period from 1995
to 1998. Its goal was to build joint space experience
and start joint scientific research.
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Cosmonaut Valeri Korzun
and Astronaut John Blaha |
American astronauts lived
on board the Mir space station with the Russian cosmonaut
crews for up to 6 months at a time. The missions
were highlighted by crew exchange and re-supply trips
from the Space Shuttle to the Mir station. NASA
learned how to successfully dock the Shuttle with the
Mir, which was advantageous to our knowledge of docking
techniques and systems that we are now using with the
ISS. |
A fire and a spacecraft crash
during Phase 1 helped NASA learn ways of coping
with emergency situations and helped lead
to new training methods, safety precautions, emergency
procedures, and structural and design concerns for
use on the ISS.
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Cosmonaut
Nicolai Budarin on on the Mir
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NASA and Russian engineers,
designers, technicians, and flight crews worked together
to achieve a common goal melding their different work
styles into a unified plan. The Shuttle-Mir Program
was a complicated program incorporating the very different
working styles and philosophies of the U.S. and Russian
space agencies and their international partners. |
The Russian
space station Mir provided the long-duration
living and working quarters for the international
flight crews. It was constantly
renewed, updated, and resupplied to keep it in good
condition. The collision of a Progress cargo vessel
with the Spektr module in 1997 resulted in the loss
of that module. However, joint efforts to
locate the source of the leak and figure out ways
to repair it allowed crews and engineers to gain
experience working in a difficult and dangerous
situation.
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| NASA astronauts underwent
specialized training before living on board Mir. As
a prerequisite for the assignment, they had to acquire
cosmonaut certification training in Star City, at the
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center. They
learned to speak Russian and attained proficiency with
the experiments they would perform. The first American
to live on board Mir reported feelings of loneliness
and isolation, and steps were taken to prevent that
happening to his successors. |
Astronaut Norman E. Thagard
in a cosmonaut space suit in the Training Simulator
Facility at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
(Star City) |
These experiences have
led to greater understanding of the psychological
as well as the physical stresses of long-duration
space flight.
Both United States and international microgravity science
partners used the facilities aboard Mir to conduct investigations
in
fluid physics, combustion, biotechnology, and materials
science. The microgravity facilities aboard the
Mir space station included furnaces, a glovebox, and
a system to isolate experiments from the station's vibration
environment. |
This Phase
1 Program maintained a continuous presence in space
and developed the procedures and hardware required
for international partnerships in space. |
Astronaut Shannon Lucid aboard
the Shuttle Atlantis after her 6 months on board Mir |
Crew of STS-79 and Mir-22
|
The Shuttle-Mir Program
sought to answer vital questions about the future of
human life in space. Crews could experience real-life
issues that might arise with more serious consequences
aboard the International Space Station. |
| Designing, building, and
staffing the International Space Station are big jobs.
The Phase 1 participants drew from the experience and
resources of many nations to make it happen. The Shuttle-Mir
experience taught them how to work together and learn
from one another. |
Astronauts Shannon Lucid and
John Blaha on Mir |
Mir offered a unique opportunity
for long-duration data gathering. Station designers
are used Mir as a test site for space station hardware,
materials, and construction methods. Mir astronauts
conducted scientific investigations into biological
and material
studies in microgravity. NASA-Mir scientists
sought 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.
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Click
here for some great animations of the Space Shuttle
Discovery docking with the Mir and some 36- views
of the Mir space station.
Click
here for more on international cooperation in
space flight. |
| "The most valuable
contribution of Phase 1 has been the way it brought
U.S. and Russian personnel together."
-Astronaut
Frank Culbertson, Phase 1 Program Manager
|
|
In 1994-1995, Mir cosmonaut Valery
Polyakov set the record for the longest space mission
- 483 days.
Between
1992 and 1999, cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev racked up
747 days on Mir in three missions - the longest total
time a human has spent in space.
Mir cosmonaut
Anatoly Solovyov made 16 spacewalks totaling 77 hours,
another space record. |
Astronauts
The crews
of the Shuttle/Mir flights were:
Norman
Thagard
Mir 18 crewmember
Launch - March 14, 1995 (Soyuz TM-21)
Landing - July 7, 1995 (STS-71)
Shannon Lucid
Mir 21 crewmember
Launch - March 22, 1996 (STS-76)
Landing - September 26, 1996 (STS-79)
Mike
Foale
Mir 23/24 crewmember
Launch - May 15, 1997 (STS-84)
Landing - October 5, 1997 (STS-86)
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Astronaut
Mike Foale
returns from Mir
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John
Blaha
Mir 22 crewmember
Launch - September 16, 1996 (STS-79)
Landing - January 22, 1997 (STS-81)
Jerry Linenger
Mir 22/23 crewmember
Launch - January 12, 1997 (STS-81)
Landing - May 24, 1997 (STS-84)
|
Astronaut Dave Wolf
hands over to Astronaut Andy Thomas
|
David
Wolf
Mir 24 crewmember
Launch - September 25, 1997 (STS-86)
Landing - January 31, 1998 (STS-89)
Andy Thomas
Mir 24/25 crewmember
Launch - January 22, 1998 (STS-89)
Landing - June 12, 1998 (STS-91) |
The Soyuz spacecraft docked with Mir
|
Click
here for an interview with Andy Thomas on board
the Mir.
Read more
stories by the astronauts and cosmonauts about the
experience.
Check out the profiles
of the Russian Mir commanders and flight engineers.
|
Click
to enlarge photo.
Cosmonaut
Pavel V. Vinogradov, Mir-24 flight engineer; Cosmonaut
Salizan S. Sharipov, Shuttle payload specialist
representing the Russian Space Agency (RSA); Cosmonaut
Anatoliy Y. Solovyev, Mir-24 commander - wearing
the space helmet; and Astronaut Andrew S. W. Thomas
|
Click
here to visit the S/MORE Shuttle/MIR Online
Research Experience site. S/MORE is a K-12 project
providing a behind-the-scenes look at the life sciences
research conducted in space aboard the Mir station.
Although S/MORE is no longer interactive, the archive
is still available indefinitely.
Check out this video
of Norm Thagaard on the Mir. More
videos from all the Mir flights (and from spaceflight
history!)
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| When Mir launched on
February 20, 1986, it was the ultimate symbol of the
heroic success of the Soviet space program.
On March 23, 2001, Mir disintegrated in a flaming
shower of debris as ground controllers forced the
aging space station back to Earth.
It cost
the Russian Space Agency $4.2 billion to build and
maintain and weighed about 143 tons. The station
orbited the Earth more than 80,000 times, served as
a base for 23,000 science experiments and hosted 104
people, including 42 cosmonauts; astronauts from the
United States, Britian, France, Germany, and other
countries. Forty-six expeditions were carried
out on Mir.
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Questions to think about:
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The fire on board the Mir contributed
a lot of smoke to the cabin before it was extinguished.
How could you train astronauts to be prepared
for this kind of fire and smoke contingency?
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The crash of the Progress vehicle
into the Mir space station caused a cabin leak.
Luckily, the crew had time to seal off the module
from the rest of the space station How would
you train astronauts to be prepared for a sudden
cabin leak contingency?
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How would you design the modules of
the space station to compensate for possible cabin
leaks due to crashes or micrometeorite debris?
NEXT... Shuttle
Triumphs and Tragedies (pg. 6 of 8) |
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