MIR Space Station to be de-orbitted

Russia to dump Mir--really!  

Russia says it's gonna do it--really, honest, this time for real. After a lot of waffling and after announced plans to commercialize Mir fell through, the Russian government finally has voted to deorbit the aging Mir space station that for more than a dozen years has been the pride of the Russian space program. 

Current plans call for Russia to deorbit Mir in February. Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian space agency, said the Russian government has agreed that Mir would be taken out of orbit and brought down into the Pacific Ocean in a predetermined area off Australia between February 26 and 28. Mir has been the focus of Amateur Radio activity from space by cosmonauts and US astronauts. Koptev said an unmanned cargo ship would be sent to Mir in January. 

In February the cargo ship is to fire its rockets to push the space station quickly into the atmosphere. In case something goes awry, a crew of two Russian cosmonauts will be on hand to blast to the station and prepare its descent. Interfax quoted Anatoly Kiselyov, head of the Khrunichev Center that designed and built Mir, as saying that debris could be scattered over an area up to 6250 miles long and 125 miles wide. He said there was no way to guarantee that all sections would fall safely into the ocean. He advised sending a new crew to Mir to disconnect a network of cables laid across the station over its 14 years of existence and to take out clamps that hold its various modules together. Koptev said Mir was in too poor a state of repair to remain in orbit much longer. 

This week's decision signals the end of an era for Russia's cash-strapped space program, and defeat for the private MirCorp, which had tried to raise millions of dollars to keep Mir in operation. During an eventful life Mir helped Soviet and Russian cosmonauts set a string of space endurance records. But in recent years its reputation has been tarnished by accidents including a near catastrophic collision with a cargo craft, an onboard fire and computer failures that sometimes sent the station spinning aimlessly through space.

By ARRL, from news reports

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