The station has been in orbit for more than 14 years.

Mir orbits 225 miles (362 kilometers) above Earth -- about the distance from New York City to Boston.

It circles the planet about 16 times a day.

It moves at about 17,500 m.p.h. (28,163 kilometers per hour).

Mir consists of six modules carrying 11.3 tons (11,481 kilograms) of equipment.

Overall, the complex weighs about 130 tons (132,080 kilograms).

It includes 6 modules arranged in a T-shape.

Mir has been home to more than 100 cosmonauts, astronauts and other visitors.

Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov set the record for the longest stay in space and on Mir -- 438 days in 1994-95.

Equipment on Mir was manufactured in 27 countries.

More than 16,500 experiments have conducted so far on the station.

Some 24 international programs have been realized on Mir during its life in orbit.

The station's development resulted in more than 600 new technologies, which later turned out to be useful to industry.

The orbiting outpost has been a site for experiments to prepare for these future technologies:

1. Spacecraft assembly and launch from orbit
2. Illumination of the polar regions of Earth
3. Construction of space-tether systems
4. Refining laser-communication systems
5. Probing Earth's ionosphere from low orbit

Russian specialists believe that the overall cost of Mir is $3 billion.

Some Russian experts say the station is in the middle, rather than at the end, of its real life span.