Russia prepares to ditch Mir space station

The decision to take the 14-year-old platform out of orbit and dump it in the Pacific Ocean in February was made by the Russian government last month. Operating the 33-metre-long Mir had become too expensive for Moscow, which is a major partner with the United States in the International Space Station currently being assembled.

For the past year, Russia had sought help from private investors to keep the space station, once a symbol of Soviet glory, in operation. But not enough money was raised to pay the running costs. The Kremlin was also obliged by international agreements to remove the platform from orbit - an operation not without risk. A Soviet military satellite plunged to Earth in 1978, littering radioactive debris over northern Canada. U.S. specialists recovered the wreckage and rendered it harmless. In 1991, parts of Mir's predecessor, Salyut 7, fell onto the Andes mountain range in Argentina, but caused no damage. The 140-ton Mir is three times as big as Salyut 7, and the operation to ditch it in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean will be infinitely more complicated.

Experts estimate that Mir will land in an area between 8,000 and 10,000 kilometres long and 200 kilometres wide, east of Australia. But some scientists point out that parts of the station could touch land instead of hitting the water. Extra fuel will have to be brought to Mir in order to gently nudge the space station from its orbit into the Earth's atmosphere. The fuel will have to be transported to the platform by two unmanned Progress cargo ships sometime at the beginning of the new year. The cargo ships will be used to push the station quickly into the atmosphere over the Pacific. Current plans do not call for a crew to be sent up to the space station, which is currently unmanned, to oversee the preparations prior to its destruction. The Russians have a team of cosmonauts ready to be sent aloft in case urgent repairs need to be carried out on the unoccupied space station. The government has earmarked 27 million dollars for the destruction of the platform. The funds are barely sufficient to cover the costs of the two Progress missions to Mir.

The space station will have been in operation for 15 years when its mission finally ends next February. Efforts to keep it in orbit failed largely as a result of objections by the Americans, who want Moscow's space agency to concentrate its resources on the 16-nation ISS. Any attempt to keep Mir operating would hamper progress of the ISS, construction of which is running behind schedule because of Moscow's failure to deliver parts on time. When complete in 2006, the multibillion dollar space station will be the largest man-made structure in space, more than 100 metres long and weighing 450 tons.

(dpa)