Mir's Fiery Re-entry, March 23, 2001

By Nancy Atkinson - March 23, 2010 at 9:55 AM UTC | Space Exploration

The storied history of the Mir space station includes collisions, a fire, and political change. But it also consists of unprecedented long-duration spaceflights and scientific studies – and without it, the International Space Station may never have been built. Nine

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years ago, the journey of the 15-year-old Russian space station ended. On March 23, 2001, Mir re-entered the Earth's atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and fell into the South Pacific. The planned and controlled re-entry began when the engines of a cargo ship docked to Mir were fired causing the station's orbit to brake, starting Mir's descent. The video here shows both real and computer generated images of the breakup of the 143-ton station as it descended to Earth.

Originally planned for a 7 year mission, Mir was supposed to be completed by 1990. However, repeated delays in the additional modules delayed completion of the station until 1996 when the sixth and final module (Priroda) was launched.

From 1995-1998 seven US astronauts lived on board Mir as part of the Shuttle-Mir program, preparing the United States and Russia for cooperative efforts on the ISS.

Investigations performed aboard Mir --which means "peace" in Russian, include space technology experiments, remote sensing and environmental monitoring, life science and biological research, astrophysics studies, material processing tests, and medical and biotechnology experiments.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com