On March 23, 2001, the Moscow space station Mir re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.

“I am especially sad these days. An entire era of our Soviet space program is ending, into which we invested not only our money but, what is more important, our intellectual potential.” Anatoly Solovyev who lived aboard Mir for 651 days and served as commander. 

Cosmonauts on Space Station MIR 
Issued as part of the Interkosmos – Soviet-Syrian Space Flight series 
USSR post office issued the stamp July 22, 1987

MIR Orbital Space Station  
Issued for Cosmonautics Day, 1989
USSR post office issued the stamp April 12, 1998

Designer Yuri Levinovsky designed both stamps

 

After more than 86,000 total orbits, Mir re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on Friday, March 23, 2001, at 9 a.m. Moscow time. The 134-ton space structure broke up over the southern Pacific Ocean. Some of its larger pieces blazed harmlessly into the sea, about 1,800 miles east of New Zealand. Observers in Fiji reported spectacular gold- and white-streaming lights. An amazing saga and a highly successful program finally had come to a watery end. Mir Space Station (nasa.gov)

  Twenty years after deorbit, Mir’s legacy lives on in today’s space projects – NASASpaceFlight.com