[FPSPACE] The Mir saga continues.....

[Dwayne Allen Day]

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000, Joanne Gabrynowicz wrote:

> 	Note this item from the Florida Spacegram:
> Russia Decides to Remove Mir from Orbit -- According to CNN.com, Russia's
> 14-year-old Mir space station will be de-orbited at the end of February,
> based on statements by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, a Cabinet

This essentially repeats the Interfax story.  But I think the decision is
above Klebanov's pay grade.


> According to Space News, with the near-inevitable de-orbiting of Mir, the
> MirCorp group planning to use the Russian station for tourism and
> entertainment ventures (including a $30 million NBC television program
> deal and a $20 million tourism visit) has been approached by Spacehab and

NBC has a $40 million deal with Mark Burnett, the producer of
Survivor.  Burnett apparently has a $20 million deal with MirCorp.  But it
is doubtful that any real money has changed hands on either this or the
Tito deal yet (which is one of MirCorp's problems--if they had the $40
million from Tito and Burnett, they could pay Energia).

The figures keep getting mixed a bit, but this is how it seems to work
out:

-Anderson invested $20-30 million in MirCorp
-Kathuria invested $10-20 million in MirCorp
-MirCorp's total investments so far has been $40-50 million
-Tito and Burnett each promised about $20 million each to MirCorp


> Russia's Energia (which are partnering on a commercial module for the
> International Space Station) to shift MirCorp's business to the
> International Space Station.  Based on comments from Energia, the MirCorp
> opportunities may be pursued without Spacehab's involvement.

I predict that the endgame in all of this will be really interesting, with
everyone suing everyone else.  Tito will be courted by both Spacehab and
Energia.  And then NASA is going to try to veto any flight by Tito to ISS
for the next several years.  The lawyers are going to feed well.  It will
make for a great book.



DDAY