Even if Mir falls, MirCorp -- the company that plans to lease the station for tourist and commercial use -- may get a hand from corporate cousin SPACEHAB.
SPACEHAB is discussing ways in which it and subsidiary Space Media can work with strategic partner RKK Energia to "help MirCorp meet its contractual obligations aboard the International Space Station (ISS) if the Russian space station Mir is deorbited as expected," the company said late Monday in a statement.
Refusing -- or unable -- to come up with the $200 million it will cost to operate Mir through 2001, Russian officials have essentially washed their hands of the aging station, leading
many to speculate that it will finally be decommissioned after its 15th anniversary in February.
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Netherlands-based MirCorp -- which has already contracted to send both "citizen explorer" Dennis Tito and the winner of upcoming reality-television program
Destination: Mir to the station in 2001 -- continues to explore ways to fund its namesake and corporate raison d'etre.
Meanwhile, a recent government
grant of patent revenues has bought the station and MirCorp some breathing room, although it remains unclear how long this will keep Mir aloft.
Enterprise as an option?
Should Mir fall, SPACEHAB may be allow MirCorp's tourists to fly to its module of the International Space Station.
Named "Enterprise," this module will be cooperatively built and owned by SPACEHAB and RKK Energia, Russia's largest aerospace firm, under the banner of Space Station Enterprise, a joint venture
announced in December and finalized October 12.
"We are very pleased to complete these [partnership] agreements, which signal our long-term commitment to this project,'' said Shelley A. Harrison, SPACEHAB chairman and CEO. "Strengthening and expanding our partnership with Energia will enable both companies to advance the development of space commerce on the International Space Station.''
However, the possibility of wider cooperation with MirCorp may mean a long wait for Tito and, more publicly, the Destination: Mir producers -- Enterprise is not scheduled to launch until 2003, a few years too late for live television.
In a related gesture of closer cooperation between the various space players, SPACEHAB elected Yuri Semenov to its board of directors. Semenov is also chairman of MirCorp and president of RKK Energia, which holds a 60-percent stake in MirCorp.
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