SHUTTLE_MIR MISSIONS

In 1993 and 1994 the heads of NASA and the Russian Space Agency, with government approval, signed historic agreements on cooperative ventures in space. The two agencies agreed to form a partnership to develop an international space station and, in preparation for that project, to engage in a series of joint missions aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle and the Russian Mir space station.

The first docking mission of the Space Shuttle and Mir occurred in 1995. Unlike the one-time joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission of 1975, the Shuttle-Mir mission signaled an era of continuing cooperation between Americans and Russians in space.

AN INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

The International Space Station is scheduled to be completed early in the 21st century. It is the product of a partnership of 13 nations, led by the United States, with major elements developed by European members, Canada, Japan, and Russia. This space station is designed to provide more laboratory space, more electrical power, larger crew accommodations, and greater international cooperation than any previous space station.

Construction in orbit is carried out during a series of Space Shuttle missions. When the space station is occupied by up to six people, both the Shuttle and the Soyuz spacecraft can be used as ferries for crews and supplies.

1:100 scale model

Gift of The Boeing Company

For the latest information on ISS construction, missions, and crew, see the ISS web site at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov