Mir

I wish you weren’t broken
Oh, broken Mir
On fire from your own burning fuel
But you were groundbreaking
Wish you were here
And that space hadn’t been so cruel

Built in the 80s, by the soviets
Not surprising your safety’s shot
Burning perchlorates, for air supply
A faulty canister, set them off
The station’s on fire
Gas masks are dead
Once they escaped, the cosmonauts said,

I wish you weren’t broken
Oh, broken Mir
On fire from your own burning fuel
The first long term station
Wish you were here
And that your engineers had gone back to school

Just four months later, fate struck again
The Progress Capsule was docking when
It smashed a module, air spewed out the hole
Power’s gone, spinning out of control
Into an escape ship
The cosmonauts fled
Standing ‘fore Congress, the NASA rep said,

I wish you weren’t broken
Oh, broken Mir
But your Spektr module’s destroyed
Shouldn’t have to use hand calcs
And star maps to steer
To keep from spinning into the void

Berlin Wall was falling, Mir’s in the sky,
The crew watching history floating by
If it survived all of that, we can try
To fix its broken modules one at a time

Maybe you’re broken
That’s not what I see
Remember all the missions you flew?
So many milestones of
Space history
ISS wouldn’t fly without you
You’re funding’s run out now
Can’t fly for free
Your successor is shiny and new
But when you deorbit
Into the sea
We’re always gonna miss you

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