The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis made the first in a series of planned dockings with the Russian space station Mir (which means ‘peace’ or ‘world’ in Russian). The Soviet Union launched Mir into Earth orbit in 1986. Beginning in March 1986, Mir supported human life. It was home to over 100 astronauts from 12 countries.
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
52 words
Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "US shuttle docks with Mir". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=3993, accessed 10 June 2026.]
