Mir space station was launched by the Soviet Union on 20th February 1986. It remained in orbit for almost 15 years. In contrast, the United States had launched their first space station Skylab on 14th May 1973.
Mir Space Station was disposed off and fell back to Earth on 23rd March 2001. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov had spent a record 438 days in space aboard Mir.