What kind docking ports were on the MIR space station

[AverageUser54]

What kind of docking ports did MIR have for visiting spacecraft?

What kind of docking port held the modules together?

How did they change the ports for space shuttle dockings?

[Bill Phil]

They were Russian APAS docking ports.

The Shuttle had an APAS port as well but still had a module that the Shuttle docked to but that may have been because of the sheer size of the Shuttle.

[AverageUser54]

@Bill Phil did they use SSVP.

[DDE]

@Bill Phil is mistaken.

Kristall had two APAS-89 docking ports, compatible with Buran, Soyuz-Spasatel (e.g. Soyuz TM-16), and a modified Shuttle. Buran and Shuttle dockings required the module to be undocked and redocked to the forward core module port. This was tolerable for the Buran test flight program, but the amount of internal communications passing through Mir's docking ports was snowballing and made module re-dockings a chore; while the standard location required partly stowing the solar arrays to make room for the spaceplane. So the Shuttle docking module was pretty much just an extension with some tucked-on situational utilities.

Everything else was old-school SSVP-G4000, some with reinforced, heavy-duty collars and locks... and it was rather complicated. Apparently the core module had only three cones for its six ports, and moving those would require an "internal EVA" inside the docking hub to move the cone from the inside of the opened hatch to the exterior of the next hatch to be used. All modules (except Kvant, obviously) would dock to the axial port first, and then use their Lyappa arm grapples to pivot to the final docking location.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Mir_Docking_Cone_Placement_and_Module_Movements.pdf

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by DDE

[Bill Phil]

Interesting.

I’ve read a lot about Soviet spaceflight so it’s weird that I’ve never heard of SSVP. 

[Jestersage]

7 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

Interesting.

I’ve read a lot about Soviet spaceflight so it’s weird that I’ve never heard of SSVP. 

Because we typically just call it "probe and drogue". Possibly due to how common it appear sticking out, from Soyuz to even Federation

[DDE]

4 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

Interesting.

I’ve read a lot about Soviet spaceflight so it’s weird that I’ve never heard of SSVP. 

Apparently there are other variations. Federatsya will be using an uprated SSVP with 30 t capacity; Zarya has some SSVP/APAS hybrid, Nauka will carry some freakish transformer that can be widened in-flight from 800 mm to 1200 mm; and TKS/Almaz used an in-house hydraulic hard seal system.