Mixed salad around space station leads to butterflies (8)
I believe the answer is:
admirals
'butterflies' is the definition.
(admiral is a kind of butterfly)
'mixed salad around space station' is the wordplay.
'mixed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'space station' becomes 'mir'.
'salad' is an anagram of 'adals'.
'adals' placed around 'mir' is 'ADMIRALS'.
'leads to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for admirals that I've seen before include "Supreme commanders of fleets" , "Officers" , "Supreme fleet commanders" .)