Take a Tour of Mir Space Shuttle Docking Module (back to Tour)
The Shuttle Docking Module was added to Mir during the second Shuttle/Mir
docking mission, in late 1995. The first shuttle docking, in June 1995,
required a spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts to move the Kristall module to
a docking port regularly used by Progress-M and Soyuz-TM spacecraft. In
this way, the shuttle could dock to Kristall without bumping into any of
the solar arrays in the vicinity of the module. The cosmonauts moved
Kristall back to its regular location after the docking mission. Obviously,
this was not the most convenient system one could imagine.
The docking module is attached to the end of the Kristall module. In
addition to allowing for safer, easier docking with the Shuttle, it has
also at times supported external experimental apparatus. In particular,
it was the site of experiments to measure the cosmic radiation
environment outside the shuttle. This apparatus was removed during a
joint American-Russian spacewalk during a docking mission in October
1997.
Space Shuttle Docking Module