About 100 different people have floated through the Mir space station, including crews from nine U.S. space shuttle missions. The visitors include Russian researcher Valery Polyakov, who holds the world record for the single longest spaceflight 438 days and the U.S. space endurance champ, Shannon Lucid, who spent 188 days in orbit.

Mirs guest list includes:

• Tokyo Broadcasting Service foreign news editor Toyohiro Akiyama. His company paid $12 million to the Russians for a weeklong flight in December 1990. He was sick for much of the flight, but was able to make daily television and radio broadcasts.
• Contest winner Helen Sharman, a British food scientist. On May 20, 1991, Sharman became the first woman to board Mir. Her flight lasted six days.
• Veteran U.S. astronaut Norm Thagard, who was the first American to fly on Mir. He also is the only American, so far, to fly on a Russian Soyuz rocket. With his scientific gear stranded on Earth, Thagard fought off boredom during part of his flight.
• French astronaut Jean-Loup Cretien, who in 1988 became the first foreigner to spacewalk from Mir.
• Cosmonaut Elena Kondakova, the first and only Russian woman to make a long-duration spaceflight. Only three Russian women have flown in space.