Astronomy Picture of the Day 12-28-02

NASA ^ | 12-28-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 December 28

Mir Dreams
Credit: STS-76 Crew, NASA

Explanation: This dream-like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting spindly appendages and solar panels, Mir resembles a whimsical flying insect hovering about 350 kilometers above New Zealand's South Island and the city of Nelson near Cook Strait. In late March 1996, Atlantis shuttled astronaut Shannon W. Lucid to Mir for a five month visit, increasing Mir's occupancy from 2 to 3. It returned to pick Lucid up and drop off astronaut John Blaha during the STS-79 mission in August of that year. Since becoming operational in 1986, Mir has been visited by over 100 spacefarers from the nations of planet Earth including, Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Austria, Kazakhstan and Slovakia. After joint Shuttle-Mir training missions in support of the International Space Station, continuous occupation of Mir ended in August 1999. The Mir was deorbited in March 2001.

[petuniasevan]

MIR was proof that Russian equipment, though clunky and prone to malfunction, is built to LAST. 15 years of missions is remarkable; what killed MIR was not so much age or obsolescence - though those were a factor - but the Russian space program running out of money.

MIR orbited Earth 86,331 times between February 19, 1986 and March 28, 2001.

For all its much-vaunted multinational design, the International Space Station will require even more expenditure once construction is complete. Will it last 15 years? MAYBE. But it will take heavy cash transfusions (mostly the US Dollar type) to keep it functioning.

[petuniasevan]

[MeekOneGOP]

Rooskie

[Pippin]

Good Morning, Petunia! Good Morning Meekie!

Awesome picture!

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Thanks for the ping!

[firewalk]

Good morning....thanks for the ping (-:

[xJones]

Thanks for the ping!

[RightWhale]

That orbiting pile could have been sent to orbit the moon without a lot of extra trouble. It could have been our first manned moon station. Why do we waste such resources?

[BossyRoofer]

WOW! Great picture. With all the talk of war I hope they don't take to much out of the budget. Keep up the good work, I think they will find peace in space.

[trussell]

Thank you P7, this is another beautiful pic.