On Friday, the 25th and likely final long-term crew heads back to Earth, leaving the space station on autopilot until a final determination is made about its fate. Although it is premature to write Mirs obituary, its role as a permanently staffed research station comes to an end with the departure of cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev and Sergei Avdeyev and French researcher Jean-Pierre Haignere. The men are scheduled to leave Mir at 5:12 p.m. ET.
Since February 1987, the station has been left unoccupied only once in its lifetime, an achievement NASA hopes to at least match beginning next year with the launch of the first crew to the International Space Station. Russia is joining the U.S.-led international partnership as a colleague and roommate in space. As a result, Mir has become the old house.
"Its kind of a pity we dont have the capability to re-use some of Mirs modules," said NASA astronaut Andrew Thomas, the last of seven Americans to live on the Russian station. "People tend to look upon Mir as this old decrepit space station. The central module of Mir was 13 years old, but the module I was in, Priroda, was only 2 years old. Parts of Mir were really very pristine, in fact, still are."
The Americans were one of the last and the most lucrative tenants on Mir, which has hosted astronauts, cosmonauts, guest researchers and civilians from 13 countries including Afghanistan, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Austria, Syria, Japan and Britain.
"Im sure that was a goal of the project from the beginning to try to get a lot of international participation, for the publicity and public relations," said author and Russian space expert Dennis Newkirk. "I would guess they far exceeded what they expected."
Hosting researchers and other guests, including a Japanese television correspondent and a British food chemist, also helped the Russian space program pay its bills, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
When Mir was launched, the idea that it would be a fund-raiser for a budding capitalist nation was inconceivable.
"Its main purpose was to extend the duration of flights with the idea of human planetary exploration," said Newkirk. "They did a pretty good job proving that that was possible."
Unlike the eight previous Soviet space stations, Mir was designed to be constructed in orbit, with modules attached to the main block like the addition of rooms to a home.
"Theyve found that maybe its not quite as easy as they first thought since it did take so long and projects are prone to not only technical difficulties, but political and economic difficulties, too," said Newkirk.
When it was launched, the core module was to last 10 years; although the first science lab was designed with a projected lifetime of five.
"They didnt really expect Mir to have to be so long-lived," said Newkirk. "And they had some experiences they never planned for a depressurization, fires, that sort of thing. Its been a pretty amazing story all around."
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