January 30, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

MIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

LONDON, January 30, Graphic News: THE space station passes 300 kilometres (186 miles) above the Venezuela coast, clipping the Caribbean and sweeping over the Atlantic Ocean. Travelling ten times higher and flying 33 times faster than a jumbo jet, RussiaÕs Mir space station reaches the French coast in just 17 minutes.

Now after more than 83,500 trips around the Earth, the 130-tonne Mir is scheduled to crash back to earth on Tuesday March 6.

This will end the 15-year history of Mir -- the last vestige of the Soviet UnionÕs ambitious space exploration program -- now proving too costly for RussiaÕs space authorities to maintain. 

An unmanned Progress M1 cargo ship, one of the craft that were used to ferry food and water to Mir, will this time carry only enough fuel for its own engines to guide Mir out of orbit and into the Pacific Ocean.

The rocket will blast off from KazakhstanÕs freezing Baikonur Cosmodrome and is scheduled to dock on January 27 with the 130-tonne unmanned space station.

Russia has said it expects Mir to hit Earth on March 5-6 but the precise date and time will depend on solar activity and the success of the Progress mission.

Sunspot activity causes the EarthÕs atmosphere to expand, and although it remains thin where the space station orbits, there is now enough atmospheric drag on the station to accelerate the orbital decay experienced by all satellites. Mir is falling into the atmosphere at a rate of half a kilometre (0.3 miles) a day.

The Progress was to have blasted off last Thursday from Baikonur, but space officials called off the launch after MirÕs voltage suddenly fell and gyroscopes, the preferred system of aligning the station, ground to a halt.

The low power also knocked out MirÕs central computer -- which controls the orientation system -- making the station unstable for a docking.

Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said that the latest glitch would be fixed quickly and would not cause Mir to spin out of control.

ÒThe voltage on board some modules dropped below the norm, that is, below 27 volts. This has led to the emergency braking of gyroscopes, the steering bodies that control the stationÕs orientation,Ó Solovyov said.

Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said that ground controllers managed to quickly restart the computer.

After a successful automatic docking, fuel from the Progress will be transferred on board Mir. Russian ground controllers will fire rockets on the station to slow its orbit and send the platform hurtling into the thicker layers of EarthÕs atmosphere. 

As it re-enters, Mir is expected to break up into thousands of pieces, some weighing as much as 700 kg (1,500 pounds).

Most of the debris will burn up in the outer atmosphere but space officials have said up to 40 tonnes of debris will reach the earthÕs surface at a speed high enough to smash through two metres (6.5 feet) of reinforced concrete.

Officials stress there is no chance it will come hurtling to earth in a scenario reminiscent of the U.S. Skylab space station, which crashed in western Australia in 1979.

If the automatic docking controlled from the Earth fails, a two-man emergency crew is ready to take off to guide the station out of orbit manually.

The first part of the record-breaking Mir space station was launched into orbit on February 20, 1986. The station was visited during 28 long-term expeditions by a total of 106 cosmonauts.

But as it aged, the jewel of the Soviet space program suffered a long string of accidents, including a fire and a near fatal collision with an unmanned cargo ship in 1997. Computer failures have left Mir spinning aimlessly, and in 1999 the station went into hibernation after Mission Control shut down its main computer by accident.

After dumping Mir, Russia will focus on the ambitious $60 billion, 16-nation venture to build the International Space Station, ÒAlpha.Ó But the legacy of Mir will continue well past the end of its 15-year life. The 20-tonne, Russian-built Zvezda living quarters -- currently the heart of station Alpha -- is the sister module to the original Mir unit.
/ENDS
Sources: NASA, Maximov, Energia, Reuters, Interfax