A History of Short Words

From the New York Times Crossword Puzzle

MIR

Wed, 1 May '24
Onetime Russian space station
Sun, 7 Jan '24
Peace, in Russian
Thu, 2 Nov '23
Former Russian orbiter
Wed, 16 Aug '23
Peace, in Russian
Fri, 13 Jan '23
Orbiter until 2001
Fri, 8 Jul '22
"Es tut ___ leid" ("I'm sorry," in German)
Wed, 1 Dec '21
Largest artificial satellite in orbit, before 9-Down
Wed, 1 Sep '21
Onetime Russian space station
Fri, 23 Apr '21
Plunger into the Pacific Ocean in 2001