Mir’s foundations were laid on 20 February 1986, when its core module was launched by a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Once in orbit, the station was inhabited nearly 90% of the time until its destruction in the spring of 2000.

Despite an expected lifespan of just 5 years, Mir remained under construction for a decade and operational for nearly 15 years. Extension modules were grafted onto the core to create an orbital complex eventually weighing some 140 tonnes.

Teams from all over the world came for short-, medium- and long-term missions on Mir.

While no truly groundbreaking discovery was made, the 23,000 experiments conducted between 1986 and 2000 enabled researchers to extend their knowledge and in particular their understanding of the effects of weightlessness on the human body.