Editing Mir (section)

===Shuttle–''Mir'' program===
{{Main|Shuttle–Mir Program}}
[[File:Shuttle-Mir Astronauts.jpg|thumb|The [[List of Mir visitors|seven NASA astronauts]] who carried out long-duration missions on ''Mir'']]
In the early 1980s, NASA planned to launch a modular space station called [[Space Station Freedom|''Freedom'']] as a counterpart to ''Mir'', while the Soviets were planning to construct [[Mir-2|''Mir''-2]] in the 1990s as a replacement for the station.<ref name="SSSM">{{cite book |author=Harland |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofspacestat0000harl |title=The Story of Space Station Mir |date=30 November 2004 |publisher=Springer-Verlag New York Inc |isbn=978-0-387-23011-5 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2021}} Because of budget and design constraints, ''Freedom'' never progressed past mock-ups and minor component tests and, with [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|the fall of the Soviet Union]] and the end of the [[Space Race]], the project was nearly cancelled entirely by the [[United States House of Representatives]]. The [[History of post-Soviet Russia|post-Soviet economic chaos]] in Russia also led to the cancellation of ''Mir''-2, though only after its base block, [[Zvezda (ISS module)|DOS-8]], had been constructed.<ref name="SSSM"/> Similar budgetary difficulties were faced by other nations with space station projects, which prompted the US government to negotiate with European states, Russia, Japan, and Canada in the early 1990s to begin a collaborative project.<ref name="SSSM"/> In June 1992, American president [[George H. W. Bush]] and Russian president [[Boris Yeltsin]] agreed to cooperate on [[space exploration]]. The resulting ''Agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes'' called for a short joint space programme with one American [[astronaut]] deployed to the Russian space station ''Mir'' and two Russian [[Astronaut#Russia|cosmonauts]] deployed to a Space Shuttle.<ref name="SSSM"/>

In September 1993, US Vice President [[Al Gore Jr.]], and Russian Prime Minister [[Viktor Chernomyrdin]] announced plans for a new space station, which eventually became the [[International Space Station|ISS]].<ref name="gao">{{cite web|url=http://archive.gao.gov/t2pbat3/151975.pdf|title=''Space Station: Impact of the Expanded Russian Role on Funding and Research''|access-date=3 November 2006|author=Donna Heivilin|date=21 June 1994|publisher=[[Government Accountability Office]]|pages=1–2|archive-date=21 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083656/http://archive.gao.gov/t2pbat3/151975.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> They also agreed, in preparation for this new project, that the United States would be heavily involved in the ''Mir'' programme as part of an international project known as the [[Shuttle–Mir Program]]me.<ref name="SMB">{{cite web|title=Shuttle–Mir History/Background/How "Phase 1" Started|publisher=NASA|date=4 April 2004|author=Kim Dismukes|url=http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/history/h-b-start.htm|access-date=12 April 2007|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113151/http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/history/h-b-start.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The project, sometimes called "Phase One", was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience in long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their [[List of space agencies|space agencies]], the US [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA) and the [[Russian Federal Space Agency]] (Roskosmos). The project prepared the way for further cooperative space ventures, specifically, "Phase Two" of the joint project, the construction of the ISS. The programme was announced in 1993; the first mission started in 1994, and the project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight, and almost 1000 cumulative days in space for US astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions.