Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station (ISS) after Mir's orbit decayed. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space.
Talgat Amangeldyuly Musabayev is a Kazakh test pilot and former cosmonaut who flew on three spaceflights. His first two spaceflights were long-duration stays aboard the Russian space station Mir. His third spaceflight was a short duration visiting mission to the International Space Station, which also carried the first paying space tourist Dennis Tito. He retired as a cosmonaut in November 2003. Since 2007 he has been head of Kazakhstan's National Space Agency, KazCosmos.
Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko is a retired Russian cosmonaut. Malenchenko became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles (390 km) over New Zealand, on the International Space Station. As of June 2016, Malenchenko ranks second for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station (ISS). He is a former Commander of the International Space Station.
Yuri Mikhailovich Baturin, is a Russian cosmonaut and former politician.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin is a retired Russian cosmonaut, a veteran of three extended space missions aboard the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station. He has also performed eight career spacewalks with a total time of 44 hours.
Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko is a Russian cosmonaut. He was a test cosmonaut of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (TsPK). Gidzenko has flown into space three times and has lived on board the Mir and the International Space Station. He has also conducted two career spacewalks. Although he retired on July 15, 2001, he continued his employment by a special contract until Soyuz TM-34 concluded. Since 2004 to May 2009, Gidzenko was the Director of the 3rd department within the TsPK. Since May 2009 he serves as the Deputy Chief of Cosmonaut Training Center TsPK.
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut. As a prominent rocket scientist, he is a veteran of six space flights and ranks third to Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko for the most time spent in space: a total of 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 minutes.
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka currently holds the world record for the most time spent in space, at 879 days. He worked on both Mir and the International Space Station.
Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev is a retired Russian and Soviet cosmonaut and pilot. Solovyev was born on January 16, 1948, in Riga, Latvia. Solovyev holds the world record on the number of spacewalks performed (16), and accumulated time spent spacewalking.
Soyuz TM-22 was a Soyuz spaceflight to the Soviet space station Mir. It launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Launch Pad 1 on September 3, 1995. After two days of free flight, the crew docked with Mir to become Mir Principal Expedition 20 and Euromir 95. Mir 20 was a harbinger of the multinational missions that would be typical of the International Space Station. After 179 days, 1 hour and 42 minutes on orbit, Reiter obtained the record for spaceflight duration by a Western European.
Soyuz TM-29 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz 11A511U rocket. It docked with Mir on February 22 at 05:36 GMT with cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev of Russia, Jean-Pierre Haigneré of France, and Ivan Bella of Slovakia aboard. Since two crew seats had been sold, Afanasyev was the only Russian cosmonaut aboard. This meant that Russian engineer Avdeyev already aboard Mir would have to accept a double-length assignment. After the February 27 departure of EO-26 crew commander Padalka and cosmonaut Bella aboard Soyuz TM-28, the new EO-27 Mir crew consisted of Afanasyev as Commander, Avdeyev as Engineer and French cosmonaut Haigneré.
Soyuz TM-30, also known as Mir EO-28, was a Soyuz mission, the 39th and final human spaceflight to the Mir space station. The crew of the mission was sent by MirCorp, a privately funded company, to reactivate and repair the station. The crew also resupplied the station and boosted the station to an orbit with a low point (perigee) of 360 and a high point (apogee) of 378 kilometers ; the boost in the station's orbit was done by utilizing the engines of the Progress M1-1 and M1-2 spacecraft. At that time a transit between Mir and the International Space Station was already impossible - such a transfer was deemed undesired by NASA - and the orbital plane of ISS had been chosen some time before to be around 120 degrees away from that of Mir. The mission was the first privately funded mission to a space station.
Ivan Bella is a Slovak Air Force officer who became the first Slovak citizen to fly in space. He participated in an eight-day joint Russian-French-Slovak mission to the Mir space station in 1999.
Sergei Vasilyevich Avdeyev is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut.
Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut. He is the record holder for the longest single stay in space, staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip. His combined space experience was more than 22 months.
Expedition 2 was the second long-duration spaceflight aboard the International Space Station, immediately following Expedition 1. Its three-person crew stayed aboard the station from March to August 2001. In addition to station maintenance, the crew assisted in several station assembly missions, welcomed the first space tourist Dennis Tito, and conducted some scientific experiments.
Michael Reed Barratt is an American physician and a NASA astronaut. Specializing in aerospace medicine, he served as a flight surgeon for NASA before his selection as an astronaut, and has played a role in developing NASA's space medicine programs for both the Shuttle-Mir Program and International Space Station. His first spaceflight was a long-duration mission to the International Space Station, as a Flight Engineer in the Expedition 19 and 20 crew. In March 2011, Barratt completed his second spaceflight as a crew member of STS-133.
Mir EO-19 was the nineteenth crewed expedition to the space station Mir, lasting from June to September 1995. The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin, launched on June 27, 1995 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-71 mission. After remaining aboard Mir for approximately 75 days, Solovyev and Budarin returned aboard the Soyuz TM-21 spacecraft on September 11, 1995.
Sputnik 41, also known as Sputnik Jr 2 and Radio Sputnik 18 (RS-18), was a Franco-Russian amateur radio satellite which was launched in 1998 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Aéro-Club de France, and the forty-first anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. A 4-kilogram (8.8 lb) one-third scale model of Sputnik 1, Sputnik 41 was deployed from the Mir space station on 10 November 1998.
Mir EO-12 was the twelfth manned expedition to the space station Mir, lasting from July 1992 until February 1993. The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Sergei Avdeyev launched aboard Soyuz TM-15 on 27 July 1992 with French Research Cosmonaut Michel Tognini. After remaining on board Mir for just over six months, Solovyev and Avdeyev returned aboard the same spacecraft on 1 February 1993.
