In 1987, the Soviet Space Program employed 400,000 people. The Baikonur, Plesetsk, and Kapustin Yar cosmodromes launched around a hundred satellites a year. There were missions for spy and communications satellites (Molniya), weather (Meteor), television (Raduga, Gorizont, Ekran), for experiments on animals (Bion), and for material processing (Foton), as well as missions to Venus (Venera) and to comets (Vega). The world’s most powerful rocket, Glushko’s Energiya, was launched. The Soviet Buran took flight in 1988. MIR was already in orbit with three people on average, still for six months per person and a record of one year. The American shuttle was up for only two weeks at a time. MIR was initially to be called Salyut 8, but political reasons led to its name being deliberately called MIR (Peace), in contrast to Reagan’s Star Wars. It has been permanently occupied since September 1989.
