(Bloomberg) — Russia yesterday retired the nuclear icebreaker NS Arktika, which in 1977 became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

The vessel had been in service since 1975, eight years longer than planned, Moscow-based Rosatom Corp., the country's state-owned nuclear holding company, said today in an e-mailed statement.

The icebreaker covered more than 1 million nautical miles, or 1.15 million miles.

The distance equals about 46 trips around the Earth. Its missions included winter voyages to Russia's Arctic Yamal peninsula.

Russia built ten nuclear-powered icebreakers from 1975 to 2006 to clear shipping lanes north of Siberia and help expeditions to the Arctic.