Two months after their triumphant return a new revised version of Soyuz was launched and docked with the Mir module. This unmanned mission was called Soyuz TM1 and demonstrated the new vehicle’s improved docking and rendezvous system. This upgraded Soyuz would be the prime spacecraft for all flights to Mir until April of 2002, with subsequent flights to the International Space Station. It would make its first manned flight on February 5 1987 when it would deliver Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Laveikin to Mir for an unprecedented 326 and 174 days respectively. During their incredibly long tenure the two men would oversee the arrival of Mir’s second module, the Kvant 1,which was launched on March 3, 1987, and successfully docked nine days later. Kvant would be the first adaptation of Chelomei’s FGB module developed for Almaz. Crews would then permanently inhabit the Mir / Kvant station for the next two and a half years before the next module arrived. Kvant 2 was launched on November 26 1989 and docked ten days later. Kvant 2 was known as an expansion module. Six months later the Kristall expansion module arrived. The Mir space station complex would now remain fundamentally unchanged for almost five years. After Romanenko and Laveikin a further nineteen manned Soyuz TM spacecraft would dock and bring crews to Mir before yet another module was added in May 1995.This was a remote sensing module called Spektr.
The MIR module docked with KVANT I module and a Soyuz at right.
Since the launch of the first Mir module in 1986 to the arrival of Spektr in 1995 the political landscape back on Earth had changed immeasurably. In 1989 the presiding Soviet Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, had finally decided to try and bring an end to the cold war tensions that had driven the space race. Working in concert with American President Ronald Reagan the era of glasnost and perestroika came and went, leaving a dismantled Soviet Union in its wake. This fundamental change in the world’s power structure could not possibly pass without having profound effects on the space program. The Soviet Union fragmented back into its constituent countries. Baikonur, the principal launch site now fell within the political borders of Kazakhstan (although Kapustin Yar remained in Russian territory.) Now the old Plesetsk R-7 missile launch facility in northern Russia would have to be upgraded and modernized to ensure a reliable space launch capability on Russian soil.
Atlantis US Shuttle docked with MIR space station July 1995.
A new era of cooperation developed between east and west and this was reflected by the first flight to the five-module Mir station by an American space shuttle on June 27 1995. One more Soyuz crew arrived, followed by another Shuttle crew before the end of 1995. In the first three months of 1996 another shuttle and another Soyuz arrived, this time American astronaut Shannon Lucid would stay behind aboard Mir. She would stay for six months and her efforts would answer many questions about long duration space flight, some of which the Russians had still not answered to their own satisfaction. While Lucid was aboard, yet another module was dispatched from Baikonur, this one was called Priroda and docked on 26 April 1996.The Mir space station was an unrivalled and unprecedented success story for the Russians. Despite negative publicity from American pundits the research done aboard the giant station over its fourteen year life span has proven invaluable for future long duration space planning. The running of the station was an exercise in survivalism requiring regular docking and resupply by the Soyuz derived Progress unmanned cargo vessel. Progress frequently brought oxygen and water as well as food to the station, but the onboard systems were able to recycle thousands of liters of urine back into potable drinking water, and in as clear an illustration as you could possibly desire of the cost of putting people into space, arriving space shuttle crews transferred bags of urine to the station to be reclaimed. The Kvant 2 module would reclaim the water by electrolysis which had the convenient by-product of oxygen, while the onboard air reclamation system was able to clear the equivalent of dozens of Progress flights worth of CO2 scrubbers.
Orbital hub MIR with two Progress and one Soyuz.
Despite these triumphs of endurance the station would not be without its mishaps. In 1994 an oxygen generator had caused a small fire and then in February of 1997 another much worse occurrence seriously threatened the crew’s lives. The fire burned for almost a quarter of an hour and blocked the path to one of two Soyuz lifeboats, while six crew were on station. On June 25 1997 a Progress re-supply vessel crashed into the station during what should have been a routine docking procedure. Inadequate funding and the loss of reliable sources for guidance equipment were pinpointed as the culprits. The collision with Progress really signaled the beginning of the end for the remarkable Russian outpost. Right up until the early months of 2000 efforts were made to save the Mir. Even a group of private investors tried to lease time from the Russians to use it for tourist flights, but due to lack of funding and increasing pressure from the United States government the Mir was finally de-orbited into the Pacific Ocean on March 23, 2001. Speculation has been rampant that the decision was made in order to force the Russians to concentrate on their obligations to the International Space Station pro gram. Regardless of these stories of failure, the Mir was an unmatched success story. The International Space Station has only been in space for half the time of Mir and was under siege both politically and technically almost as soon as it was launched. The Columbia accident in which another seven astronauts lost their lives would only compound the situation, leaving ISS to be serviced almost exclusively by yet another Soyuz upgrade, the Soyuz TMA.
ISS Zarya module.
The first ISS module was financed in the United States and built at Chelomei’s design bureau, it was called Zarya (meaning Dawn) and weighed about 20,000 kg. Once again the Zarya was a derivative of Chelomei’s FGB module developed for Almaz. It was launched on November 20, 1998 and was carried to orbit by the now steadfast and reliable Proton/UR-500.Two weeks later the space shuttle Endeavour delivered the American module known as Unity. The two old enemies were now firmly locked together, but the real legacy of space station hardware was still entrenched at the old Chelomei and Korolev bureaus. A few months after Mir made its spectacular descent into the Pacific Ocean the Russians launched the Zvezda module, a remnant of their earlier Mir program. The ISS became a three-module station on July 26 2000 after Zvezda docked with the Zarya/Unity complex. Later that year the space shuttle delivered a docking Unit and the main P6 Truss, which is the very large cross structure that houses many of the stations solar panels; and then in February 2001 the Destiny module was successfully attached. The following month the first European module took flight aboard a space shuttle. This module, named Leonardo was designed as a sort of moving-van. It was the first of three such planned modules, used to deliver large amounts of supplies, hardware and experiments to the station. It returned to Earth after clearing the garbage from the station. On 2 July 2001 the Quest airlock module was delivered to ISS by STS-104, this addition gave ISS effectively almost the same habitable volume as Mir. The following September a robotic Progress module arrived at ISS. This was another modification of the basic Soyuz structure, which by this time had proven itself as the most versatile design ever created for a spacecraft. The Progress M-S0 had been modified so that the usual cargo and fuel modules were replaced by a sophisticated airlock. This new addition was built at Korolev’s Energia facility and once attached to the ISS it became known as Pirs. This small module provided extra clearance for ships docking with ISS and also doubled as a handy airlock for anyone egressing the station in Russian spacesuits.
2002 was a busy year for shuttle flights to ISS with three different missions delivering large truss structures, the S0, P1 and S1. Five more truss delivery and assembly missions were scheduled but were delayed since the only way they could be delivered to the station was by the grounded space shuttles.
Next: Part 16
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