Space Soviet and Russian Space Stations

Early visions of orbiting space stations predated the Space Age. The idea of a space station generally, might have to be attributed to Russian space visionary Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), with 1883 sketches, which mostly inspired many future space engineers and scientists in his homeland, among them Chief Designer Sergei P. Korolev the architect of Soviet space who, among others, also envisioned a space station. Herman Noordung in the 1920's, a young army officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, wrote a book called 'The Problem of Space Travel,' focusing on the idea of a space station under he form of a spinning torus to create artificial gravity. In terms of space station, or 'orbital station' in Earth's orbit, the space age eventually will have mostly displayed the Soviet programs, the US Skylab, and the current International Space Station. Space stations had been quoted by pioneers of astronautics like Constantine Tsiolkovsky or Hermann Oberth. Why did Soviets acquire such a experiment in terms of orbital stations? It looks well like, once passed the -swift- time of their politique of prestige at the turn of the 1960's, the apparent advance the Soviet Union had shown soon mostly be mere bluff. The advance in the field of space now was in the USA camp. They had acquired that first role through the Apollo program and landing the first man on Moon or deep space exploration but, further, even for the military aspect of the space conquest -like the ICBMs or espionage- too as they had reacted also to the advantage the Soviets looks like they had reached by the mid-1950's. The USA, thus, had envisioned too, through a joint project of the US Air Force (USAF) and the National Reconnaissance Office, a orbital space laboratory for the purpose of reconnoissance missions with high-resolution photographic imagery, the 'Manned Orbital Laboratory,' (MOL). Another U.S. vehicle, the 'Big Gemini,' as derived in turn from the Gemini B, should be able to transport to a space station up to 12 crew and proposed by 1969. US initiative was then to continue with the Skylab program, by 1973-74, a manned space station built from craft and launchers of the Apollo program, that of the Space Shuttle, a re-useable spacecraft flying since 1981, or of the US space station 'Freedom.' After their great space premieres, Soviets were very rapidly in the position only to have to have to answer to the American progresses. It is in that frame that one can better understand what their space station programs were. The Soviet Union had performed the first automatic docking in space by October 1967, as a essential step in the development of both their lunar landing effort and their space station plans. They docked two Kosmos, the 186 and 188, which were unmanned variants of the Soyuz manned vehicle. The Kosmos, on a other hand, had been recertified to carry crewmembers after the Soyuz 1 accident in April 1967 that claimed a cosmonaut's life. That successful docking demonstration was a critical step in Soviets' return to flight but the mission was marred by some dysfonctionments: a electrical connection could not be made between both craft as the Kosmos 188’s self-destruct mechanism accidentally triggered during the descent. Automatic dockings were a integral component of the Russian Salyut and Mir space station programs --and still remain in practice today on the Russian segment of the International Space Station

The Almaz Program

The Almaz program (meaning 'diamond' in Russian), by 1965, was the first Soviet space station program. It was named too the 'Orbital Piloted Station' (OPS) as the USSR considered it thus like its answer to the US MOL project. The spacecraft of that program however did not fly before in 1973. The Soviets moreover disguised the Almaz program, which they highly kept secret, under the one of the civilian Salyut space station, the craft of which were adapted from their military program and began flying as soon as in 1971. It is also possible that the civilian program be the way for the USSR to regain some prestige within their space program after that the US Moon landings had successfully occurred. With a diameter 13.8 ft and a weight 20 tons, the OPS spacecraft consisted first, between 1965 and 1970, into 8 test-models and two ready-to-fly vessels. Flights began by 1973. Scientist Vladimir Chelomei was the one who conceived the Almaz program along with its launcher, the Proton UR-500, too. Each craft was featuring a spying equipment, it looks like the Almaz be too endowed with a fixed, rapid-fire cannon which was aimed with a reorientation of the whole module, as it has been derived from a Tupolev-22 tail-gun. The unmanned OPS-2 mission made a successful test of it. A project was then to equip the Almaz program with missiles! Flights were to last 30-60 days as the crew were to takeoff with the module. Small-sized capsules allowed to swiftly send developed films back Earth. Crew were returning home through a re-useable 'Return Vehicle' but that concept was rapidly changed into a one of the TKS spacecraft which were able to transport either a crew, or cargo in a automated flight and serving for the station maneuvers. The TKS (for 'Transportnyi Korabl’ Snabzheniia,' or 'Transport Supply Spacecraft') were similar to, but smaller, than the Apollo capsules as they had been derived from a capsule by Chelomei for a circumlunar manned spacecraft. They did not had enough time however to be really used as the Almaz program was interrupted before their first, effective flights -not taking in account a question of political rivalry. However, the TKS did make several successful uncrewed test flights, including three vehicles launched under the Cosmos designation to the Salyut 6 and 7 space stations. The cargo portion of TKS, known as the Functional Cargo Block, also became the basis for future Russian-built space station modules on both Mir and the International Space Station, with the Zarya module. The OPS spacecraft were also equiped with docking ports which allowed to the Soyuz vessels. The Almaz program in its whole amounted to two successful manned flights only for a total sojourn of 81 days in space, under the official names of Salyut-3 (1974-75) and Salyut-5 (1976-77) as those flights performed spying missions. The Almaz program ended after that later flight, in 1978, as ordered by the Ministry of Defense which estimated that the tactical advantage gained did not equal the program's costs, that the times necessary to maintenance of capsules was too important and that, at last, unmanned military satellites were more efficient. 3 Almaz vessels were converted between 1986 and 1991 into unmanned, Almaz-T military satellites which featured a heavy radar and flew with varied achievements, one only, the Kosmos 1870, being successful between 1987 and 1989

The Almaz Space Stations

Mission (or Spacecraft) Name	Launched Date	End of Mission (or Reentry) Date	Crew(s)	Remarks
Salyut-2 (OPS-1, Almaz 101.1)	4/4/1973	5/28/1973	-	Once in orbit, the station began to loose pressurization, which was likely due to that the upper stage of the Proton launcher exploded nearby and a shrapnel hit the module, which lost its flight control system. 11 days later, a unexplained cause made that 4 solar arrays were torn off
Cosmos 557/DOS-3	5/11/1973	5/18/1973	-	As errors in the flight control system occurred when the space station was out of reach of the ground controllers, it fired its orbit correction engines which exhausted the whole fuel; as that flight had already been registered by western radars, Soviets disguised it under the satellite of 'Cosmos 557.' It re-entered in the Earth's atmosphere one week later
Salyut-3 (OPS-2, Almaz 101.2)	6/25/1974	1/24/1975	one from three scheduled crews only, could reach the station, aboard the Soyuz-14. The Soyuz-15 which brought a second crew could not dock to the space station	That mission tested numerous and varied reconoissance sensors as it send back to Earth a capsule containing films. Cosmonautes, on 1/24/1975 tested the 23 mm Nudelman aircraft cannon at range between 1,700 ft and 1.9 mile as they destroyed a test-satellite. They let then the orbit to decay by itself to allow for re-entry
Salyut-5 (OPS-3, Almaz 103)	6/22/1976	8/8/1977	3 crews were launched to the orbit as two only -crews 1 and 3 aboard the Soyuz-21 and Soyuz-24 respectively- could dock to the space station. Crew 2, aboard Soyuz-23, could not dock	That was the third and last mission of the Almaz program

The Salyut Space Station

The Soviet Salyut space station program (with the name meaning 'salute' or 'fireworks' in Russian) was, like seen above, narrowly linked to the military Almaz program. It consisted into a total of 9 missions between 1971 and 1982. The purely civilian part of the program, which succeded to the military missions, mostly was missions dedicated to science and a politique of prestige. Along six civilian missions, they performed long term research about questions linked to stays in space and too, a variety of experiments in astronomy, biology and Earth science. As the Salyut missions used through the Almaz program were named 'OPS', civilian ones were 'DOS,' for 'Durable Orbital Station.' Both were fundamentally similar as the civilian stations were featured with two docking ports, one on the forward part of the craft, the other at the aft of it, which were to be used by Soyuz, the TKS spacecraft or other modules, and they received too additional solar arrays. The Salyut program broke several duration records in space and records in terms of spacewalks as it also performed the first handover of a space station between two crews. It above all allowed that the concept of space station transitionned from a developmental stage to a one of a real possibility of long sojourns in space. Those space stations of the 1970's (as the US Skylab was part of those) are said 'monolithical,' as they had been deviced to be built and launched in one piece. It is only with the Salyut-7, by 1977, that docking modules were added which permitted the arrival of a new crew and cargo. That novelty thus allowed the use of such space stations on the long term as, until then, the station module was abandoned once the crew left or supplies exhausted. Following Salyut thus were a transition towards the second generation space stations, or the 'modulary space stations' of the MIR type and eventually the ISS. The Soyuz spacecraft had been redesigned after a June 1971 accident in which three cosmonauts died when their capsule had depressurized during reentry. A new Soviet control center facility had opened by 1973 in Kaliningrad, now Korolev, outside of Moscow

The Salyut Space Stations

Mission (or Spacecraft) Name	Launched Date	End of Mission (or Reentry) Date	Crew(s)	Remarks
Salyut-1 (DOS-1)	4/19/1971	10/11/1971	First crew launched aboard the Soyuz-10 but it could not enter the space station due to a failure in the docking mechanism. A second crew, flying with the Soyuz-11 could embark	That station constituted the first in orbit of the Salyut program. Second crew staid during 23 days aboard as the premature opening of the Soyuz' pressure equalization valve during the return flight killed all three crewmembers
DOS-2	7/29/1972	7/29/1972	-	the second stage of the Proton launcher did not fire as the station could not reach orbit and crashed into the Pacific Ocean
Salyut-4 (DOS-4)	12/26/1974	2/2/1977	2 crews could fly to the space station aboard the Soyuz-17 and 18. One of both totalized 63 days in the station. The unmanned Soyuz-20 tested the reliability of the systems on the long term during 3 months	At the difference of the Almaz DOS-3, the Salyut-4 was a success
Salyut-6 (DOS-5)	9/29/1977	7/29/1982	5 crews performed long-duration stays (with a 96-day sojourn which surpassed that of the US Skylab, and a absolute record of 185 days) as 11 short-duration stays occurred (of which by cosmonauts from countries of the Pact of Warsaw)	That space station was featuring improvements, of which a second docking port used for Progress cargo-craft which could resupply the station with fuel. The Salyut-6 remained unmanned during its last year as a heavy TKS spacecraft was tested. The Salyut eventually was terminated only because mold forbade any further crew to any stay
Salyut-7 (DOS-6)	4/19/1982	2/7/1991	6 main crews and 4 secondary flights (of which French and Indian cosmonauts) flew to the space station along 8 years and 10 months of lifetime	The Salyut-7 was the backup for the previous mission as it featured more innovations still. Among other activities, it tested, the docking and use of additional modules, the 'Heavy Cosmos modules,' preparing the construction of the next Soviet Mir space station

Beyond the missions as described in the previous table, the Salyut program was to feature two further stations, the DOS-7 and the DOS-8. They were to feature 4 docking ports. They never flew however. The DOS-8 was turned into the 'Mir Core Module,' with more efficient computers and solar arrays, 6 docking port and amenities for two crewmembers (each one gifted with its own cabin). The DOS-7, as far as it was concerned, transformed into the 'Mir-2 project,' which should replace the Mir space station. That module however turned into the third module, the Zvezda, of the International Space Station

The Mir Space Station

click to a view of the modules of the Mir space station. picture courtesy site 'Amateur Astronomy'

The Mir project (in Russian 'peace' or 'world') was the second Soviet program of a space station. By those times, Soviet scientists also began development of a orbital space vehicle known as the BOR-4 (Russian acronym for 'Unpiloted Orbital Rocketplane-4') in the late 1970s, with the project initially designed to test the heatshield technology for the Buran space shuttle. Four of BOR-4 spaceplanes, launched between 1982 and 1984 from the secretive Kapustin Yar rocket launch and development site in Russia's Astrakhan region, were sent into orbit, making their way back to Earth for recovery in the Indian Ocean and the Black Sea. The BOR-4 itself was a continuation on an even earlier Soviet design known as the 'Spiral' orbital plane project, which was developed in the mid-1960s in response to the US's Boeing X-20 Dyna Soar space interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft program. In the mid-1980s, after US President Ronald Reagan's announcement that Washington would attempt to create a missile defence system capable of neutralizing the Soviet nuclear deterrent, Soviet engineers developed plans to place up to 15 BOR aircraft equipped with nuclear payload inside the Buran space shuttle, with the system intended to render any US missile defence system useless. Mir originated like a will to maintain a long-term research base in orbit. It costed a total of $4,2 billions. The Mir program officially started in February 1976 like a step of improvement of the Salyut stations. They were to pass to modules equiped with additional docking port, which by August 1978, too the definitive form of one docking port at the aft, and 5 ports located on a spherical compartment forward. With the same move, they had scheduled to dock to the space station laboratory-modules which were to be brought by a variant of the Soyuz, which were devoided of any orbital and re-entry systems. The Soviets eventually opted for modules which were derived from the Almaz program TKS spacecraft. NPO Energia et KB Salyut were the institutes in charge of those works as both were already working together about miscellaneous projects like the Energia launcher, the Soyuz-T or Progress cargo-craft. Drawing board work began in 1979 only and reached definitive models by 1982-83 only. The onboard computer had been improved too, the vessel's control systems (through flywheels taken back from the Almaz program) and the Kurs automatic rendez-vous system had been also deviced. By 1984 however, the Mir program had to come to a halt because Soviet officials had decided to make their Buran space shuttle prioritary, which was a responsed to the program of the US Space Shuttle. Almost immediately nevertheless, the Mir program was re-started as it was about, that time, to be back to a prestige policy and to have the new space station settled in orbit early 1986 at the occasion of the 27th Communist Party Congress, a moved which had been ordered by the Central Committee's Secretary for Space and Defence. Mir process was accelerated and eventually, by 1096, after a failure at launch on February 16th for cause of telecommunications problems, firt Mir module successfully reached orbit on February 19th. That base module of the new space station had been launched by a Proton-K rocket. The addition of supplementary modules lasted until in 1996. Those modules, which were also launched atop a Proton-K, automatically reached the base module of the Mir station and, a crew present onboard, crewmembers used a robotic arm to install them. When completed, the Mir space station consisted into 7 pressurized modules and several non-pressurized components. Solar arrays featured by each module were powering the station. The Mir station could welcome, on the long term, 3 cosmonauts which could be added with visiting crews for short stays, or 6 persons in total during one month. Crews and cargos were shipped to the space station through Soyuz, or Progress cargo-craft. The Mir station was orbiting at a altitude of between 184 and 262 miles (296-421 km) at a average speed of 17,200 mph (27,700 km/h) as it usually performed 15.7 orbits a day. A total of 80 spacewalks occurred during the existence of the Mir program. It was a total of 28 long-duration missions which settled at Mir, as each crew was named under a format EO-x, each mission usually lasting 6 months and manned with two to three cosmonauts. The Soviets then inaugurated a shift system which since has been retaken for the International Space Station, namely that a part of the crew shipped with another one and conversely, which brought to handover periods. Shorter-duration missions took place during such handovers

Steps of Construction of The Mir Space Station

Module Name (and Crew Designation)	Module Function	Launch Date (and Launcher)	Detailed Description
Central Module (N/A19)	base module of the Mir space station	Feb. 1986 (Proton-K)	That module, also named DOS-7 had been derived from the Salyut program. It was deviced like the living quarters for the crews as it also beared the main engines of the Mir space station along with attitude control systems. A spherical module, forward of the module, was featuring docking ports at which a part of the following modules were to dock, and with a port for a Soyuz, or a Progress
Kvant-1 (EO-231)	astrophysics module	Mar. 1987 (Proton-K)	The Kvant-1 was a science module featuring miscellaneous astronomical instruments; it was endowed too with additional attitude control systems. It was shipped through a TKS spacecraft as it was installed at the aft of the central module because, at the difference of the following modules, it did not sport any engines of its own
Kvant-2 (EO-526)	augmentation module	Nov. 1989 (Proton-K)	That module was based upon a Almaz program's TKS spacecraft. It augmented the Mir space station with a airlock for the spacewalks (that airlock was featuring the Soviet version of the US Manned Maneuvering Unit, or a autonomous moving system for cosmonauts, the 'Ikar,' which was used once only). Augmentation also consisted into a compartment for instruments and cargos and one compartment for science instruments and experiments. The Kvant-2 also increased the life systems of the Mir
Kristall (EO-631)	technology module	May 1990 (Proton-K)	The Kristall module was featuring a laboratory section used for experiments about engineering materials in microgravity, as astronomical observations could be performed too. A section was a docking compartment featuring two ports. That ports should serve to the Buran space station as they eventually were used by the US Space Shuttle
Spektr (EO-181)	power module and US living quarters and science	Jun. 1995 (Proton-K)	The Spektr module served like living quarters and science to US crews. Its four solar arrays provided half of the power needed by the Mir space station. That module became unavailable when, by 1997, the Progress M-34 cargo craft, collided with it
Docking Module (EO-2015)	docking module used for the US Space Shuttle	Nov. 1995 (Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-74 mission)	That module should simplify dockings of the Space Shuttle which, until then, had used the Russian docking ports. That had needed however that the Kristall module be re-positioned to allow to a sufficient dockings' space margin relative to the solar panels of the central module
Priroda (EO-2126)	Earth science module	Apr. 1996 (Proton-K)	That was the last module to the Mir space station. It had been deviced for Earth science using remote observation. The experiments it contained belonged to 12 different countries. It also featured a large, external, synthetic aperture radar
Non-Pressurized Elements. The Mir space station was also equiped with numerous non-pressurized elements: .The 'Sofora' was a 47-foot long structure affixed on the Kvant-1 module. Via a block of thrusters located by its end, it served to a better roll attitude control of the Mir station as that diminished the fuel needed by 85 percent .The 'Rapana' was a 17-foot long structure which was also affixed on the Kvant-1 as it should serve like a support to parabolic antenna to the next-generation Mir program. It mostly served however to expose experiments to the void of space .Both Strela cargo cranes, which had been mounted on the central module, were assisting cosmonauts during spacewalks. With a deployed length of 47 feet they were able to reach any part of the Mir station .The Travers antenna, with was settling on the Priroda module, was a synthetic aperture radar. It represented the type of the varied external components which were linked to such or such module function of the experiments which were performed inside there

In terms of functionment, the electrical power of the Mir space station was provided by solar arrays, through batteries but the station had to be re-oriented in its whole for their optimal reception of solar flux. The Mir station always suffered from a insufficient power production as the solar arrays further, as they were installed progressively with each module, were deteriorating with time. Soviets wanted to hold the space station unto circular orbites. The atmospheric drag had the station loosing altitude which, several times a year, had to be increased in altitude. Usually they used the Progress craft engines (and even those of the US Space Shuttle). The attitude control of the Mir space station were performed through control flywheels as far as usual stability was concerned as thrusters were used for major changes (as those were often needed in the case of observations of the Earth's surface). Flywheels and thrusters were originally found on the station's modules. Radio communications with the Earth were done through the Lira antenna of the central module or even the Soviet relay satellites and tracking ships. Both later systems however were discontinued by the 1990's. Communications during spacewalks or during docking of craft were performed in UHF. In terms of pressurization, the Mir space station was provided with a atmosphere which was the same than that of Earth for composition and pressure as a pure oxygen atmosphre had been discarded to avoid fire risk. A waste recycling unit existed which contributed to the atmosphere production. The space environment of the cosmonauts, inside the space station had not a welcoming aspect as cramped and aging time passing. The Mir was living with the Moscow time, or GMT-3. The crew endured 16 sunrises and sunsets a day which brought to shadow the windows during the 'night' part of the cosmonauts' day. To counter the usual effect of microgravity like muscular loss, bone deterioration, etc., crew had to train using a treadmill or a stationary bicycle. Space control for the Mir station was performed by the Soviet mission control center, or the RKA Mission Control Centre (TsUP), which was located at Korolyov, close to the RKK Energia plant in the surroundings of Moscow. It could process data from up to ten spacecraft through three separate rooms. Generally one of those usually was dedicated to the Mir program, the other to the Soyuz flights and the third to the Buran space shuttle -as that later turned into the control room responsible for the ISS. The Mir space station suffered miscellaneous failures during its last years as it had been deviced to last 5 years only, with computer failures, loss of power, pipes leak (with further was polluting the station's air, not taking in account the pressurization general system failures), loss of attitude, etc. Mir, on a other hand, also endured several accidents like the collision between a Soyuz and the Kristall module by 1994 as three accidents occurred during the sole EO-23 missions with a 90-second fire, a tested Progress craft colliding with the Spektr module, bringing to a power problem and a shift of attitude which could be fixed weeks after only. The Mir space station at last, was relatively ill-protected against meteorites and crew, during important meteor showers, had to sleep inside a Soyuz to be able to rapidly evacuate the outpost. The Mir had its crew ferry to and back using Soyuz as supplies and cargo were brought through Progress cargo spacecraft. Once there, the Soyuz remained dock and served like a emergency raft. Since the program's beginning the Mir saw the birth of the Soyuz-TM, a improved version of the Soyuz-T as they featured the Kurs automatic docking system. Progress spacecraft were brining supplies and fuel as they then were used to increase the altitude of the station back or, mostly, to burn into their reentry into the Earth's atmosphere once they had been loaded with rubbish and waste. Two generations of Progress mostly were used like the former Progress 7K-TG and the Progress-M (featuring the Kurs system) as a total of 64 supply missions flew to Mir. As the Progress cargo craft docked automatically most of the time, the Mir space station featured a manual docking system, or TORU, which was actionned by cosmonauts from inside the station. Some cargo were returned Earth using Raduga capsules, which could be brought by the Progress as they could take about 150kg. Of interest is that the Mir crew bore the name of 'Expedition' like ISS' are now

Mir was thus the second -and even third- generation of the Soviet space stations, namely the concept of modulary space stations with a central unit added with other modules, each one having a specific purpose. A 'second' generation might consist into last Salyut station which had been featured with the ability to be resupplied. Such that new generation space station, at the contrary of the Salyut allowed to a larger flexibility in terms of operations as they did not need of a powerful launcher neither. A modulary space station also opens to a longer duration of use as it can be resupplied. As the NASA, under the US Reagan presidency, had tried to response to that new Soviet space station through the Freedom program, that never was completed. The Mir space station thus became the first station to be used like a long-term research laboratory and to be inhabited continuously by long-duration crews. It long remained the largest object flying in orbit around the Earth. Crews conducted varied experiments in microgravity in biology, medical biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, tests of spaceships systems, etc. The Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov still holds the record of the longest flight in space at 437 days and 18 hours. Crews in their majority were Soviet -and Russian after the fall of the USSR by 1990 but a policy of collaboration also brought to Mir foreign cosmonauts and astronauts through such programs like Intercosmos (dedicated to the Pact of Warsaw cosmonauts), Euromir (European astronauts; and French too as France was then considered by the Soviets like a friendly country). A major event in the life of the Mir space station obviously was the fall of the USSR in 1990. The Soviet space agency then turned into the 'Russian Federal Space Agency,' or 'Roskosmos.' As, by that time, the USA had abandoned their own project of the Freedom space station and as Russians could not afford anymore to the cost of the Mir-2 program, a successor to the Mir one, the USA by the early 1990's engage themselves into negociations with the other space powers. By June 1992, first, a joint program with the Russians, which mixed the Mir station and the Space Shuttle and then, above all, by September 1993, the project of a new, international space station, the future ISS. The Shuttle-Mir Program began as government-level agreements between the United States and Russia in 1992 that initially called for the flight of a Russian cosmonaut aboard an American Space Shuttle, a long-duration flight of an American astronaut aboard the Russian space station Mir, and the docking of a Shuttle with Mir to return the astronaut to Earth. Managers later expanded this program to add a precursor Shuttle rendezvous with Mir and six additional long-duration astronaut missions aboard the Russian station and eight more Shuttle dockings. NASA accepted to fit the Mir with research hardware as due to the short schedules available to make hardware ready to fly to Mir, existing Shuttle-based experiments were appropriately modified. The goals of the Shuttle-Mir Program was for the two space-faring nations to learn to work together, not only at a programmatic level but also at an engineering level. The latter included learning how to install and operate NASA hardware in Russian vehicles, both for launch and on-orbit operations. These 11 joint missions, which unfolded 1994-1998, and also known as Phase 1 of the International Space Station (ISS), provided the United States and Russia with experience in working together in space prior to the start of ISS assembly and operations, and enabled the first long-duration American human space flights and research since the Skylab program of the 1970s. The program also included a joint flight abord a Russia Soyuz ship. The US astronauts learned from the Russian expertise in terms of long-duration space station as NASA and Russian scientists conducted experiments designed to answer vital questions about how humans function in space and how to build future space stations. Russians made public, by July 1998, that the Mir program was to end, fault of funds, by June 1999. By November 1998, the Zarya module, the first module to the ISS was launched but delays for the Zvezda module -which was a former module of the Salyut program and was to be the base to Mir-2- would have necessitated that the Mir space station continue to fly beyond 1999. A last mission left the Mir station on August 28th, 1999, as the flywheels and the main computer were shut down on September 7th. Despite a commercial flight by the MirCorp corporate, by April 2000, which aimed to turn Mir into a orbital TV and movie studio, the Mir space station eventually de-orbited. They first let the atmospheric drag to lower the station down to 137 miles of altitude as that was helped through a Progress loaded with full only and then they passed to a transfer orbit of 103 x 137 miles on March 23rd, 2001. That same day, Progress engines were fired during 22 minutes which made the Mir to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. Mir's reentry occurred above the Fiji Islands as fragments of the station managed to survive, falling in the Southern Pacific Ocean

Space Station Mir as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery during its departure on the STS-91 mission, which constituted the last U.S. flight to the Russian station, by June 1998. picture courtesy NASA

The Soviet Union had also deviced a satellite designed to kill enemy military satellites in the 1960's, and sending its first experimental maneuverable satellite, the Polet-1, into orbit in 1963. Five years later, on November 1, 1968, Soviet engineers achieved the first successful interception of a dummy satellite. As soon as by 1982, the Soviet Union and its allies had been engaged into being able to conduct combat operations into and from space with also the capacity of anti-missile missiles. In the late 1970's, the Energia corporate created two prospective combat spacecraft designs based on one platform -- the first armed with space-based missile weapons and the second with lasers. That vessel was designated the 17F111 Kaskad as it was to target enemy systems in low-earth orbit. The laser-armed ship, known as the 17F19 Skif, as far as it was concerned, was intended for use against enemy satellites in medium earth and geostationary orbits. The Kaskad project included also a interceptor missile intended for use to intercept reentry vehicle warheads of enemy ICBMs as a heavy space station -- the 17K DOS -- as well as autonomous vehicles (of the Buran space shuttle-type) with up to 15-20 nuclear warheads onboard was aiming at destruction enemy military installations on ground. On a other hand, after U.S. President Reagan unveiled his 'Strategic Defense Initiative,' Soviet engineers began exploratory work into the possibility of orbital-based blasting clouds clearing space from enemy spacecraft at a height of up to 1,900 miles of altitude. The U.S.A had began the creation of military-use space stations only in the 1970's with laser and particles beam weapons and the Soviets consider still today that they lagged behind them in terms of the military use of space and they eventually terminated their Strategic Defense Initiative in 1993. By May 1987, reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ordered, with regrets, the closure of the USSR's military space program in the Baikonur Cosmodrome, like he had pledged to U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik the year before. The concept of a heavy orbital station, for example, was closed in 1989, and soon after work ceased on the Energia heavy rocket carrier or the Buran space shuttle. Like a conclusion, let's point to that Russia, when it considers that a end will have to be brought to the ISS, is forecasting to unplug one of its modules there to use it like a new base for a Russian space station, to be named 'Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex' (OPSEK). That new Russian space station would mostly be used in the frame of the manned exploration of the solar system -and to Mars especially. All the components of a mission to Mars would first dock to the station and be assembled there before the journey. The new Russian station also would serve to the manned flights to the Moon as it would built and maintain space tugs. Crews, at last, would be trained back to Earthly conditions after long interplanetary missions