&gt;and Mir do wrong?<p>one of the main factors that affected Mir was that USSR and its economy had disintegrated and during the 199x Russian space agency (and related government R&amp;D institutions and factories) employees were having even their small salaries delayed for months (so the ones who hadn&#x27;t by the time left the industry for better pastures, had to do side employment&#x2F;business just to survive), the hardware production on many military&#x2F;space-industrial-complex factories stopped and whatever stockpile of parts available was sold into the others, non-space markets, like for scrap or precious metals. It came to the point that some parts delivered to Mir in the end of 199x were actually bought at a flea market.