Editing Mir (section)

===Assembly===
[[File:Mir Docking Cone Placement and Module Movements.pdf|right|thumb|upright|A diagram showing the ''Konus'' drogue and module movements around ''Mir'''s docking node<ref name="SSA">{{cite book|title=Space Shuttle Almanac|isbn=978-0-9696313-0-9|orig-year=1992|year=2011|author1=Joel W. Powell|author2=Lee Brandon-Cremer|publisher=Microgravity Press |name-list-style=amp|url=http://www.spaceshuttlealmanac.com/|access-date=23 August 2011|archive-date=2 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002020622/http://www.spaceshuttlealmanac.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
The orbital assembly of ''Mir'' began on 19 February 1986 with the launch of the ''[[Proton-K]]'' rocket. Four of the six modules which were later added ([[Kvant-2|''Kvant''-2]] in 1989, ''[[Kristall]]'' in 1990, ''[[Spektr]]'' in 1995 and ''[[Priroda]]'' in 1996) followed the same sequence to be added to the main ''Mir'' complex. Firstly, the module would be launched independently on its own Proton-K and chase the station automatically. It would then dock to the forward docking port on the core module's docking node, then extend its [[Lyappa arm]] to mate with a fixture on the node's exterior. The arm would then lift the module away from the forward docking port and rotate it on to the radial port where it was to mate, before lowering it to dock. The node was equipped with only two ''Konus'' drogues, which were required for dockings. This meant that, prior to the arrival of each new module, the node would have to be depressurised to allow spacewalking cosmonauts to manually relocate the drogue to the next port to be occupied.<ref name="MirBIS"/><ref name="SSSM"/>{{page needed|date=February 2021}}

The other two expansion modules, [[Kvant-1|''Kvant''-1]] in 1987 and the [[Mir Docking Module|docking module]] in 1995, followed different procedures. ''Kvant''-1, having, unlike the four modules mentioned above, no engines of its own, was launched attached to a tug based on the [[TKS spacecraft]] which delivered the module to the aft end of the core module instead of the docking node. Once hard docking had been achieved, the tug undocked and deorbited itself. The docking module, meanwhile, was launched aboard {{OV|104}} during [[STS-74]] and mated to the orbiter's [[Orbiter Docking System]]. ''Atlantis'' then docked, via the module, to ''Kristall'', then left the module behind when it undocked later in the mission.<ref name="SSSM"/>{{rp|248–249}}<ref name="STS-74"/> Various other external components, including three truss structures, several experiments and other unpressurised elements were also mounted to the exterior of the station by cosmonauts conducting a total of eighty spacewalks over the course of the station's history.<ref name="SSSM"/>{{page needed|date=February 2021}}

The station's assembly marked the beginning of the third generation of space station design, being the first to consist of more than one primary spacecraft (thus opening a new era in [[space architecture]]). First generation stations such as [[Salyut 1]] and [[Skylab]] had monolithic designs, consisting of one module with no resupply capability; the second generation stations [[Salyut 6]] and [[Salyut 7]] comprised a monolithic station with two ports to allow consumables to be replenished by cargo spacecraft such as [[Progress (spacecraft)|Progress]]. The capability of ''Mir'' to be expanded with add-on modules meant that each could be designed with a specific purpose in mind (for instance, the core module functioned largely as living quarters), thus eliminating the need to install all the station's equipment in one module.<ref name="SSSM"/>{{page needed|date=February 2021}}