BOOK OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2016

                                                                                 

Title        : The Story of Space Station Mir

Author    : Harland, David M.

Pages      : 424

Publisher: Praxis

ISBN       : 10: 0387230114

The book reviews the origins of the Soviet space station programme, in particular the highly successful Salyuts 6 and 7, describes Mir’s structure, environment, power supply and maneuvering systems, and provides a comprehensive account of how it was assembled and how it operated in orbit.

The book narrates how the Soviet Union's experience with a succession of Salyut space stations led to the development of Mir, which was assembled in space, piece by piece, between 1982 and 1996 and became an international research laboratory whose technology went on to form the 'core modules' of the International Space Station.

Mir (Peace) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, owned 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. Until 21 March 2001 it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station after Mir's orbit decayed. 

Mir was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days until 23 October 2010 when it was surpassed by the ISS. It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. 

Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short visits. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986, and followed by six further modules. 

As a result, most of the station' occupants were Russian; however, through international collaborations such as the Intercosmos, Euromir and Shuttle-Mir programmes, the station was made accessible to astronauts from North America, several European nations and Japan. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 after funding was cut off.