What are you talking about? The only part of Mir not launched on a Proton-K was a docking module brought up by, yes, shuttle so that a shuttle could dock to the station and American astronauts could learn about long duration spaceflight from the Russians.
Shuttles weren’t required for the construction of Mir, just as China is now constructing its space station without the use of a shuttle.
The idea that shuttles are or were required to learn about long duration space flight is simply wrong
Still required a shuttle, just not necessarily NASA’s shuttle(s).
What are you talking about? The only part of Mir not launched on a Proton-K was a docking module brought up by, yes, shuttle so that a shuttle could dock to the station and American astronauts could learn about long duration spaceflight from the Russians.
Shuttles weren’t required for the construction of Mir, just as China is now constructing its space station without the use of a shuttle.
The idea that shuttles are or were required to learn about long duration space flight is simply wrong
To answer your question, I don’t know what I’m taking about, clearly!