SBS50: Biggest Stories 1995

One of our biggest stories of the past four decades took place in 1995, when an American space shuttle docked with the Russian space station Mir. Despite previous cold war animosity, Russian astronauts greeted the Americans with bread, salt and a kiss on the cheek.

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Avdeyev, left, Yuri Gidzenko, center background, German astronaut Thomas Reiter, playing guitar, and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin, right, aboard the Mir space station (AP Photo) Credit: AP

Mir served as history’s highest stage, for the first large-scale, technical partnership between Russia and the United States after a half-century of mutual antagonism.

The Shuttle–Mir Program was fundamental to the building of the international space station.

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