[FPSPACE] AP: Mir Likely To Be Dumped Soon

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

Mir Likely To Be Dumped Soon

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
AP-NY-10-19-00 1616EDT
  
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian officials said Thursday that the Mir space station, an 
aging symbol of Soviet space glory, is likely to be discarded soon for lack 
of money. 

But officials also said no decision has been made yet, and the fate of the 
14-year-old station was not even discussed at a meeting of space experts. 

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, the Cabinet official responsible for the 
space program, reiterated what the government has said before: It cannot 
afford Mir. 

``Therefore we believe that the station will most likely end its existence in 
the first half of next year,'' Klebanov said. 

But he then appeared to offer some hope that Mir could stay aloft, pointing 
out that the station's lifetime has been extended by private investors once 
already. 

The Russian government originally planned to dump Mir into the ocean early 
this year, but agreed to keep it in orbit after Netherlands-based MirCorp 
signed a lease agreement and helped pay for a 73-day mission to the station 
earlier this year. 

Since then, Russian space officials have grown skeptical about MirCorp's 
ability to raise money. And the government has pledged to devote scarce space 
funds to the new International Space Station, a 16-nation project led by the 
United States. 

``Most likely, a decision will be made to de-orbit the Mir,'' the Russian 
Aerospace Agency's chief spokesman, Sergei Gorbunov, said on NTV television. 
``As of today, all financial and technological means of keeping it aloft have 
been expired.'' 

But a space commission that met Thursday put off a discussion of the Mir, the 
space agency said. 

MirCorp said last week that it intends to raise $117 million in a stock 
offering to refurbish the station and keep it flying. Its plans include 
sending Santa Monica, Calif., businessman Dennis Tito as a tourist to the 
station early next year for $20 million. 

MirCorp executives have been in Moscow for a week meeting with government 
officials to convince them that the Mir should remain in orbit, and the 
company is still planning launches, said spokesman Jeffrey Lenorovitz. 

``MirCorp is still in business and extremely positive about its future,'' 
Lenorovitz said. ``We haven't gone down for the final count yet.'' 

A Progress cargo ship that is already in orbit is expected to link up to the 
Mir on Saturday and boost the orbit of the 143-ton station. 

``The Progress will raise the Mir's orbit to keep it under control,'' Russian 
Aerospace Agency spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko said in a telephone 
interview. 

``If a final decision is made to discard the Mir, we will send another cargo 
ship with an extra amount of fuel needed to send it down,'' he said. 

Also Thursday, the space agency set Oct. 31 as the new launch date for the 
first permanent crew on the International Space Station, a U.S. astronaut and 
two Russian cosmonauts. 

The launch had been set for Oct. 30 but had to be moved back one day because 
of the need for a slight revision in the stations flight path, Kreidenko 
said. 

The Mir was launched in February 1986, when Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader 
of a Soviet Union still more than five years away from collapse.