Mir space station. View of the Russian space station Mir (meaning 'peace') in orbit over the Earth. Mir was launched in February 1986. The space station originally consisted of a core module and docking facilities. A variety of science modules were then added, increasing Mir's mass from its original 21 tons to over 100 tons. This photograph was taken by an IMAX cine camera from Space Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-63 (3-11 February 1995). The Discovery made a close rendezvous with Mir in a rehearsal for the first Shuttle-Mir docking in June 1995.