From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Tue Jun 01 1999 - 10:44:26 MDT
Mir Today, Gone Tomorrow
Wired News Report
9:00 a.m. 1.Jun.99.PDT
Russian space officials said Tuesday that the financially challenged Mir
space station will be abandoned in August.
Government funding for Mir expires in August, and the agency has been unable
to secure permanent private funding.
When the final cosmonauts returns home, the Russian Space Agency says it
will gradually lower Mir's orbit until it reaches about 125 miles. A final
command from ground control will send it to a fiery death in Earth's
atmosphere.
If any pieces of the station survive, they will drop harmlessly into the
Pacific, RSA officials said.
The agency is hedging its bets, however. Cosmonauts will install equipment
that will allow the station to be controlled manually from the ground. If
new funding is found, Mir could be kept operable.
Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
Web:
http://www.nanoindustries.com
E-mail:
nanogirl@halcyon.com
Alternate E-mail
echoz@hotmail.com
"Nanotechnology: solutions for the future."
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