Designing, building, and staffing the International Space Station are big jobs. As Phase 1 participants draw from the experience and resources of many nations to make it all happen, Shuttle-Mir experience teaches them how to work together and learn from one another.
Astronauts Shannon Lucid and John Blaha on Mir
Click here for more on international cooperation in spaceflight.
Investigation
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. Click here for links to each of the experiments carried and completed on the Shuttle-Mir missions.
Operation
In the 35-year history of human spaceflight, no previous program had required so many transport vehicles, so much interdependent operation between organizations, and so much good timing. Shuttle-Mir was an opportunity to gear up for the major cooperative effort the International Space Station requires.
Click here for some great animations of the space shuttle Discovery docking with the Mir and some 36- views of the Mir space station.
Astronauts and Cosmonauts
"The most valuable contribution of Phase 1 has been the way it brought U.S. and Russian personnel together."
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.
Click here for links to biographies of all the Mir astronauts.
Click here for the shuttle crews and links to each shuttle mission involved in the Phase 1 program, and click here for links to the Russian Mir commanders and flight engineers.
Click on any of the below links for many great videos from the Shuttle-Mir Phase 1 program.
STS-91 Videos
STS-81 Videos
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 will remain available indefinitely and will remain educationally useful.
