Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kalery will try to plug an oxygen leak on Mir and breathe new life into one of the country's greatest space achievements, on a mission mounted with US private investment.

The mission takes off from the Russian space center in this former Soviet republic for a 45-day stay in Mir -- a stay which may be extended to 70 or 90 days if additional funds can be raised.

"The main goal of this mission is to find the source of an oxygen leak causing a considerable drop in pressure inside the crew module," explained Nikolai Zelenshchikov, vice-president of Energiya, which manages the station.

"But even if the cosmonauts do not manage to find the leak, Mir will still be able to stay in orbit, because we resupply it regularly with oxygen," he added.

Zelenshchikov held that the space station was "capable of functioning for two or three more years."

Mir has been uninhabited since last August and was expected to be allowed to drift out of orbit to a fiery destruction in the Earth's atmosphere until Energiya entered the picture.

Moscow had lacked the funds to keep Mir going while also paying for its part in the second-generation International Space Station (ISS).

Mir had a checkered career, with a string of incidents in 1997 which included an onboard fire and a near-fatal collision with a cargo craft.

Its main computer shut down at least four times, leaving its occupants spinning uncontrollably through space in total darkness.

But it was also on Mir that the majority of space flight records were set, including the longest space stay of 437 days set by Valery Polyakov in 1994-1995.

The 'Soyuz' space vehicle is being fixed on the launch pad at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the start of 30th expedition on board of the 'MIR' orbital station 02 April 2000. The launch is scheduled for 04 April 2000. Photo by Sergei Chirikov. Copyright AFP - 2000.

Mir's 60-million dollar (62,5 million euro) annual budget is now being managed by MirCorp, an Amsterdam-based consortium grouping Energiya and the US venture capital firm Gold and Appel, which has come up with 20 million dollars for this attempt to keep the station alive.

More funds must be found, however, if Saletin and Kalery are to remain in space longer than 45 days.

"There can be no doubt that Mir should remain alive," 37-year-old mission commander Zalyotin told AFP.

"It's the pride of our space sector. No other country in the world has this kind of station," said Salizhan Sharipov, Zalyotin's backup for the mission.

Their convictions were shared by Russian space officials who sought desperately to keep Mir aloft, and by a majority of Russians, for whom Mir remained the symbol of the country's successful space effort.

"Once aboard Mir, we will also have to depressurize it and make repairs, because the station has been uninhabited since August 1999," flight engineer Kalery said.

"We are also going to carry out a program of scientific experiments and make a space-walk."

"Moreover, a study of Mir's systems after 14 years in flight will allow us to better ensure the International Space Station's success," Zelenshchikov contended.

Energiya has a majority stake in MirCorp, and the consortium said it would run the Soviet-built space station along resolutely capitalist lines.

In a telephone interview with AFP from the United States in January, MirCorp President Jeffrey Manber said: "We think it's going to capture the attention of the world."

Mir offered opportunities to the pharmaceutical industry and to companies specialized in satellite manufacture and repair, he added.

Firms interested in beaming live images to Earth for cable and the Internet could also be attracted by the project, as well as travel agents keen to attract a new generation of tourists known as citizen explorers.

A ticket to the final frontier would cost between 20 and 40 million dollars, said Manber.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SPACE TRAVEL

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the underwater training of cosmonauts in a swimming pool at the cosmonauts training center in Star City near Moscow 02 March 2000. TASS Pool Photo via AFP

Cosmonauts Arrive For Last Mir mission?
Baikonur (AFP) March 29, 2000 - The two cosmonauts expected to take part in the final mission to Russia's Mir space station arrived at the Baikonour launch pad Wednesday to start final preparations.