Last Progress On Route To Mir For Automated Reentry and Destruction

SPACE TRAVEL

The last Soyuz to Mir stands ready for launch. Photo by Energia

Moscow (AFP) Jan. 24, 2001
Russia's Progress cargo ship blasted off into space Wednesday on a fateful mission to steer the faulty Soviet-era Mir space station to a Pacific Ocean splashdown in March.

Mission control officials said the launch went off without a glitch from Kazakhstan's Baikonur space center at 0429 GMT. The cargo ship is due to dock with the abandoned 15-year-old craft on Saturday.

The successful liftoff provides much-needed relief for Russian space chiefs who were forced to delay the planned launch of Progress last Thursday due to last-minute problems with Mir's orientation system.

The craft's gyroscopes -- spinning devices which are meant to keep the 15-year-old station stable in space -- broke down yet again last Saturday.

Space control was forced to keep Mir from rotating uncontrollably through space by firing up the craft's booster rockets, which are now keeping the station stable enough for the Progress docking to go ahead.

However, officials admit this is far from an ideal option, as the booster rockets are using up Mir's fast-dwindling fuel supplies.

If all goes according to plan, Progress will lower Mir's orbit to 80 kilometres (50 miles), making it enter the atmosphere's dense layers where most of the 140-tonne station is due to burn up.

However space scientists have warned that up to 40 tonnes of the craft may still hit Earth in various forms.

Debris is expected to fall into the Pacific Ocean up to 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) off the coast of Australia in the splashdown, which is currently scheduled to take place on March 6 at the latest.

Several countries including Japan have voiced concern about the splashdown, fearing some of Mir's debris may fall far from where the Russians suggest it should.

Moscow has already agreed to keep Tokyo abreast of minute-by-minute developments during Mir's fatal plunge towards Earth.

Russia has also found that its commitment to the new International Space Station (ISS) has stretched its budget to a breaking point, making it unable to support both space projects.

Last month, Russia lost contact with Mir for almost 24 hours, sparking international alarm at the possible security threat if such a communication breakdown recurred while Mir was hurtling towards Earth.

The decision to bring down Mir follows several glitches in recent years, including a serious fire and a near-fatal collision with a cargo ship in 1997.

SPACE TRAVEL

Rockets Now Keeping Mir At Station, Back Up Crew Stands Ready For Manual Shutdown

Moscow (Interfax) Jan. 22, 2001
The pitch and angle of the Russian space station Mir are currently being maintained with the help of its rocket engines, the press service of Mission Control in Korolyov told Interfax.

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