This 1995 file photo shows the Russian Mir space station. After 15 years in the heavens, Mir started its return home and made a fiery plunge into the South Pacific earlier today near Fiji.

In 2001, the Russian space station Mir was brought down in the Pacific Ocean near Fiji after more than 15 years in orbit. In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and ...

Russia will use an unmanned cargo spacecraft to safely drop the aging Mir into the Pacific in February, a top space official said Wednesday, seeking to allay fears that the space station will make ...

On March 23, 2001, the legendary space station was sunk in the Pacific Ocean after 15 glorious and troublesome years in ... When the USSR launched the Mir space station into orbit in 1986, ...

March 27 -- Imagine placing a twisted scrap of metal on your coffee table and boasting to friends you own this piece of Russian history — this chunk of the fallen space station, Mir. OK, so it ...

In 2001, Russia’s huge Mir space station assumed its place in the ocean cemetery, Smithsonian Magazine reported. Although the space station in its entirety weighed 143 tons, just 20 tons of it ...

At the end of its 15 years of operation, Mir plummeted through Earth's atmosphere and splashed into the Pacific Ocean. Disposal of the Mir space station in the Pacific Ocean was planned, much like ...

MOSCOW -- Russia has decided to ditch Mir in the Pacific Ocean in February, dashing the plans of venture capitalists to transform the world's longest-serving space station into a platform for ...

On March 23, 2001, the Russian space station Mir was brought down in the Pacific Ocean near Fiji after more than 15 years in orbit.