Portal:Space exploration/Featured/June 2007

The Shuttle–Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle and American astronauts engaging in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir.

The program, under the code name 'Phase One', was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience into long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their respective space agencies, NASA and RKA, in preparation for further cooperative space ventures. Announced in 1993 with the first mission occurring in 1994, the program continued until its scheduled completion in 1998, and consisted of eleven shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1000 days in space for American astronauts over seven expeditions.

During the four-year program, many 'firsts' in spaceflight were obtained by the two nations, including the first American astronaut to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, the largest spacecraft ever flown at that time in history, and the first American spacewalk using a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

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