1998: Space Exploration: Space Shuttle Completes Last Mission to Mir

A three-year cooperative space exploration program between Russia and the United States ended on June 12, 1998, as the space shuttle Discovery touched down at Florida's John F. Kennedy Space Center. The Discovery's mission was the last of ten shuttle flights to the Russian space station Mir which were intended to boost cooperation in preparation for construction of the International Space Station (ISS).

Returning to earth aboard Discovery was astronaut Andrew Thomas, who spent more than four months aboard Mir and was the last of seven U.S. astronauts to stay on the Russian station. Thomas and the other astronauts used their time on the 12-year-old space station to conduct experiments and test technologies planned for use on the ISS. The program also provided scientists with valuable information about the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body.

The first space shuttle mission to Mir took place in February 1995. The first U.S. astronaut onboard Mir was Norman Thagard, who stayed from March 1995 to July 1995. The others were Shannon Lucid, John Blaha, Jerry Linenger, Mike Foale, and David Wolf. The U.S. astronauts and their Russian colleagues endured several mishaps during the program, including a collision with a Russian supply vehicle, an onboard fire, and numerous computer problems.

A total of 15 countries—the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and members of the European Space Agency (ESA)—will contribute to the ISS. The first component was scheduled to be launched into orbit in late 1998. The Russian Space Agency reportedly planned to allow Mir to fall out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere some time in 1999. Mir was launched in 1986 and was originally intended to last only five year.

columbia disaster

The space shuttle Columbia broke apart and burned up while reentering Earth’s atmosphere over Texas on February 1, 2003. The entire seven-member crew was killed as they returned to Earth after completing a series of scientific experiments. Investigation of the disaster pointed to structural failure of the heat-shielding system for the shuttle’s left wing. Sensors inside the wing recorded unusually high temperatures just before NASA lost contact with the shuttle. The investigation determined that the wing was damaged during liftoff when it was struck by a piece of insulation foam from the external fuel tank, opening a hole in the left wing. On reentry, superheated gases in the atmosphere penetrated the left wing, dooming the craft and the crew. The space shuttle fleet was grounded until July 2005 when the shuttle Discovery returned to space. However, during the launch of Discovery, a chunk of insulation foam broke off again from the external fuel tank, despite a more than two-year and nearly $1 billion effort to prevent a recurrence of the problem. Although the Discovery appeared to be undamaged, NASA announced that it was indefinitely suspending further shuttle flights.