After the Russians lost the race to Moon they decided to concentrate their efforts on long-duration space missions in orbit around the Earth. The evolution of the USSR space station program can be classified into 3 main generations. The first generation includes the Almaz station, the second consists of Salyut 6 and 7, and the third generation comprises Mir. Salyut [Courtesy of NASA] Salyut is a generic name for the Soviet Union's first attempt at creating a space station. Salyut was a series of 7 missions launched during the 1970s and early 1980s. In the later missions, it became evident that the Salyut program was actually a combination of military objectives and scientific efforts. Salyut 2, 3, and 5 were equipped with a large optical telescope for the observation of military installations on Earth. However, the Almaz project switched to unmanned missions continuing to function as Earth observing radar satellites. Mir, the Russian word for peace, is Russia's latest space station following the Salyut series. Mir has been orbiting the Earth for 12 years and has been the home of over 62 people from 24 crews. The Mir space station docking with the space shuttle [Courtesy of NASA] USSR has had many cosmonauts from Communist bloc and other countries sent on these missions as a political stunt. Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts from dozens of nations have lived and worked on this space station for periods of 1, 3, or 6 months. Russian cosmonaut Dr.Valeri Polyakov currently holds the record for the longest number of consecutive days in space with 22 months. On Mir the cosmonauts perform scientific and technical experiments. Mir has the capabilities for research ranging from space life sciences, microgravity, and space technology, to Earth observation and space sciences. Currently, the cosmonauts and astronauts are conducting experiments in preparation for the construction of the International Space Station. The experiments include those of life science, microgravity studies, and earth observation.