Russian space station gets on with optical illusions (7)

I believe the answer is:

mirages

'optical illusions' is the definition.
(mirage is a kind of optical illusion)

'russian space station gets on' is the wordplay.
'russian space station' becomes 'mir' (Mir was a Soviet Union space station).
'gets on' becomes 'ages' (get on can mean to get older).
'mir'+'ages'='MIRAGES'

'with' acts as a link.

(Another definition for mirages that I've seen is " Optical illusions in hot places".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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