- guardian.co.uk, Saturday March 10 2001 01.09 GMT
February 20, 1986 The launch of Mir - which means new world, peace or community - surprised many because Salyut 7 was still operational. Mir was made up of two cylinders, one 3m in diameter and one 4m across with two cabins and a room with a carpeted 'floor' and a white 'ceiling': in space there is no up or down.
May 20, 1991 British cosmonaut Helen Sharman begins her seven-day visit. Each day, cosmonauts had to ride 10km on a cycling machine and walk 5km on a treadmill. Each drank 2.7 litres (5 pints) of water to make 1.2 litres of urine a day, in turn to retrieve oxygen.
Feb 6, 1995 The first docking with a US shuttle. Mir had a series of dramas, including health alarms - involving a heart arryhthmia - and over pay. When the USSR collapsed Soviet officers were left marooned high above a democratic Russia.
June 25, 1997 A Progress craft crashed into Mir, threatening the two Russians and the Lincolnshire-born astronaut Michael Foale.
November 20, 1998 Russia launches the first module of the International Space Station. Nasa believed the Russian struggle to keep Mir aloft was hampering co-operation on the US-led international station. There was talk of renting Mir for space tourism, of leasing it as a film set. In 2000, US space buffs and Russia formed Mircorp. But Mir, alas, was deteriorating too fast.
March 18-25, 2001 If Mir did go out of control, the 130-tonne craft could crash anywhere between latitude 51N and Latitude 51S. Most of it would burn up like a meteor. Yuri Karash, a trained cosmonaut, claimed that mutant fungus aboard Mir, itself exposed to damaging cosmic rays, could release toxins and infection on Earth.
