Mir Corp - Aftermath

Aftermath

By the end of the 73-day MirCorp mission, the company enjoyed a $70 million dollar backlog in customer orders. A decision was made by Russia, however, to yield to the American pressures and deorbit the station. In addition, the two financial investors were late on their payments and new investors were frightened off by the negative publicity from NASA.

The company remained in business even after the Mir was destroyed. It handled the efforts of *NSync boy band Lance Bass’s unsuccessful effort to fly to space, as well as that of former NASA official Lori Garver (currently Deputy NASA Administrator), who also sought to use advertising as a means to be a space tourist, before finally closing the doors.

MirCorp attempted to demonstrate that a private company could manage a manned space station; that a business model could be developed around an orbiting space station. However, its failure to produce sufficient revenue to pay its modest expenses and the imprisonment of one of its founders for tax evasion indicate that its efforts were unsuccessful.

Today the situation has changed. Former NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin has voiced full support for commercialization of manned space activities and the Russian operated space tourist program is fully accepted by the United States.

The space tourism program has continued in Russia, which today enjoys far more robust funding than a decade ago.