Designed to last three years when launched in 1986, Mir — Russian for “Peace” — was home to more than 100 cosmonauts and astronauts from more than a dozen countries, helping to pave the way for increased international cooperation, and a bit less competition, in space.
During Mir’s lifetime 23,000 experiments were conducted in technology, medicine, astronomy, Earth sciences and biology. Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov set a human space endurance record on Mir, spending 438 days in orbit. Mir was plunged into the atmosphere by controllers, and its remains splashed into the South Pacific on March 23. It was 15.