We review recent advances in the study of the dissociative recombination of molecular ions with electrons with a primary emphasis on experimental studies. In particular, we focus on previous experimental measurements of recombination rates for N2+, O2+, and NO+ ions. In the context of this review, we present temperature dependent rate coefficients from recent merged beam studies of the dissociative recombination of N2+, O2+, and NO+ ions with electrons. Identifying underlying physical differences between the various experimental techniques enables a discussion of the effects of vibrational excitation on the dissociative recombination of these major ionospheric species of ions. For T 1200 K.