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The 1980's

What Is a Mir?

What Is a Mir?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.71

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    consecutive, reside, orbit, atmosphere, original, take-off, burning, descendant, launches, cargo, shuttle, satellite, economic, fairly, travelers, link
     content words:    Soviet Union, United States, Station Freedom, On February, On June, South Pacific Ocean, International Space Station

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What Is a Mir?
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     Man has dreamed of traveling in space for thousands of years. They wondered what other planets were like. They wondered if life existed on other planets. They wondered and they dreamed. It wasn't until the 1950's and 1960's that man made a serious attempt to answer all of his questions about what space was like.
 
2     Scientists made long range goals about space travel. They knew that they wanted to be able to see if space travel was safe, first. Then they made plans for trips to the moon. They wanted to be able to get a first hand look at what made up neighboring planets. They realized that if they were to conduct travel among planets and moons, there would have to be a work place in space.
 
3     In February of 1986, the Soviet Union launched what they hoped would be the first section of a space station that could be inhabited by space travelers. This space station would orbit around the earth like a satellite. The Soviets named their space station Mir. Mir can mean both world and peace in the Soviet language.
 
4     The Soviets had launched their first space station in 1971. It was called Salyut. The Salyut was meant to dock shuttle space craft that the Soviets intended to launch at a later time. Mir was to be a scientific laboratory that could be inhabited by scientists studying space.

Paragraphs 5 to 11:
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