The Soviet space program, run entirely by the Ministry of Defense, had a bad reputation. So much of their work was devoted to military ventures that rarely did the program show another face. Space station Mir, a Russian word meaning peace as well as world, was intended to help change the image of the Soviet space program.
Mir was a purely nonmilitary venture. Research conducted on Mir introduced the world to the manufacturing potential of a space station and the technological and financial rewards that semiconductor materials and pharmaceuticals processing in space could offer. The Soviets hoped that Mir could make materials processing in space a reality.
Mir was a significant step toward a permanent lunar base and manned interplanetary missions. It was the site of unprecedented and comprehensive weightlessness testing, and it opened the door to a whole host of new financial, technological, scientific and international adventures. But more importantly, Mir gave the Soviet space program, the most advanced program of its day in experience and development, a gentler look.
