science & techWikipedia1995 · Kennedy Space Center, USA

Atlantis delivered the docking port that let shuttles visit Russia's Mir

the gist

On 12 November 1995 Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on STS-74, the second shuttle docking mission to the Russian space station Mir. Its cargo was the Mir Docking Module, a Russian-built tube that attaches to Mir and gives the shuttle a safe place to dock with the station. The module meant the shuttle could attach without Mir's solar panels needing to be moved aside. The flight was part of the Shuttle–Mir programme, in which American and Russian crews worked together in orbit after the Cold War.

so what

Shuttle–Mir taught NASA and Russia's space agency how to dock large spacecraft, swap crews and operate together, which made it possible to build the International Space Station a few years later. The docking systems used were a step towards the ISS's shared standards.

fun fact

Atlantis is named after RV Atlantis, a two-masted sailing ship used by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the 1930s.

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