Pirs (Russian: Пирс, meaning "pier") – also called Stykovochny Otsek 1 and DC-1 – was a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS). Pirs was launched on 14 September 2001, and was located on the Zvezda module of the station. It provided the ISS with one docking port for Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and allowed egress and ingress for spacewalks by cosmonauts using Russian Orlan space suits. Pirs was docked to Zvezda for almost 20 years, until 26 July 2021, where it was decommissioned and undocked by Progress MS-16 to make way for the new Nauka module.
The Pirs module attached to the International Space Station.
The flight engineer Oleg Kononenko photographs commander Sergey Volkov operating the manual Strela crane holding him. The commander stands on Pirs and has his back to the Soyuz spacecraft. Zarya is seen to the left and Zvezda across the bottom of the image.
Progress DC-1 and Pirs approaches ISS
ISS crewmember Gennady Padalka inside Zvezda's docking hub leading to Pirs.
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station assembled and maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA, Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ISS is the largest space station ever built. Its primary purpose is to perform microgravity and space environment experiments.
Oblique underside view in November 2021
Comet Lovejoy photographed by Expedition 30 commander Dan Burbank
Expedition 8 Commander and Science Officer Michael Foale conducts an inspection of the Microgravity Science Glovebox
Fisheye view of several labs and the Space Shuttle
