Pirs (ISS Module)

Pirs, whose Russian name means pier, was a Russian docking compartment of the International Space Station, also called Stykovochny Otsek 1, SO-1 or DC-1. It was launched on 14 September 2001 on a Soyuz-U rocket, using a modified Progress spacecraft as an upper stage, and was attached to the nadir port of the Zvezda service module. It gave the station a docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and an airlock for spacewalks by cosmonauts in Russian Orlan suits, and it supported 52 spacewalks. RKK Energia manufactured it, on a design similar to the Mir Docking Module. It measured 4.91 metres long and 2.55 metres across and weighed 3,580 kilograms. After almost 20 years it was undocked on 26 July 2021 by Progress MS-16 to make way for the Nauka module, and the pair reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific.