After months in financial and political limbo, the leaders of the Russian space industry have decided to send a fresh crew to the Mir space station at the end of March.

The council of chief designers, including the heads of Russias major space centers, discussed Mirs fate during a meeting on Monday in Korolev, the home of RKK Energia, the company operating Mir.

"For the last two years, the station has never been inbetter shape than now and we are ready to go with the new mission," Uriy Grigoriev, the Deputy Designer General of RKK Energia told space.com, following the meeting.

The Russian Aviation and Space Agency, (Rosaviacosmos), is expected to review the plan on January 12 and make an official recommendation to the government to continue Mir operations, Vechaslav Mikhailechenko, the agency spokesman said.

Both, RKK Energia and Rosaviacosmos indicated that financing for a one-and-half-month long mission had been secured. However, RKK Energia has yet to raise the funds for the full six-month piloted mission planned by the company.

Grigoriev would not comment on the price and the source of the funds for the initial phase of the flight, however, he said that RKK Energia was successful in raising some private funds. "Rosaviacosmos told us to finance Mir privately if we want to continue with it, so we did," Grigoriev said.

Last August, RKK Energia had to suspend inhabited operations on Mir, the first time in a decade, due to a lack of government funds. The companys efforts to raise private funds to continue the mission have failed.

The mission plan

The next phase of Mir piloted operation should start with the launch of a Progress cargo ship carrying several tons of fuel, food rations and around 150 kilograms of compressed air to the station.

Since Mir has been leaking air for months, RKK Energia devised a plan to restore the stations atmosphere from Progress' air tanks. Of late, the pressure inside the station fell to 584 millimeters on the mercury table, losing 0.5 to 0.8 millimeters a day, Grigoriev said. The lowest acceptable level of air pressure for safe crew presence is 560 millimeters or 10.8 pounds per square inch.

When Progress docks with the uninhabited station, the ground control in Korolev will attempt to refill its atmosphere using radio commands. If this attempt fails, the new crew will have special equipment on board, which will allow the cosmonauts safely enter the station and manually refill the craft.

According to Grigoriev, the air supply on board Progress will allow controllers to raise pressure inside the station up to 650-700 millimeters.

The Progress launch from Baikonur was originally planned for January 24. However, it was indicated during Monday's meeting that it would most likely be delayed until January 31. This delay is due to a schedule conflict with the test flight of the Fregat upper stage by Starsem. Both vehicles are launched by the Soyuz launcher and use the same fueling and tracking facilities.

Depending on the success of operations to replenish Mirs atmosphere, a second Progress launch to Mir is planned for the end of April or May.

One or two more Progress cargo ships will have to be sent to Mir, if RKK Energia is to go ahead with its full-length expedition.

The new large antenna in the works

According to Grigoriev, RKK Energia is developing ambitious plans for research on board Mir for the new crew. He said the company is planning to deploy a large radio telescope from the space station.

An earlier radio telescope experiment, conducted on Mir last year in cooperation with the former Soviet republic of Georgia, was only a dynamic structure test. Unlike the earlier experiment, this large telescope antenna will be connected to the radio research equipment.

Several other material processing and endurance experiments are planned in cooperation with the scientific community in the West, Grigoriev said. He hinted that such projects might help to finance the upcoming mission on Mir.

Mirs status

Not counting the air leak, Mirs flight continues to be trouble-free, Grigoriev said. The stations flight control system was tested on January 6 and performed well.

The ground control sent the station into a slow spin, with a rate of around 0.2 degrees per second, to provide good thermal control and even exposure of the crafts solar panels to the sun.