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Aging Space Station Mir Hurtles Over Indian Capital
By Reuters
posted: 03:42 pm ET
13 March 2001
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Astronomers spotted Russia's Mir space station hurtling over Indian skies on Monday night and said the ageing craft is expected to be visible to the naked eye in New Delhi for the next three nights Astronomers spotted Russia's Mir space station hurtling over Indian skies on Monday night and said the aging craft is expected to be visible to the naked eye in New Delhi for the next three nights. "It will look like a big star. It will be very fast moving, covering the whole sky in a minute or so,'' Nilesh Vayada, assistant secretary of the Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomers told Reuters on Tuesday. The 15-year-old craft, once the pride of the Soviet space program, is expected to splash down about 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers) east of New Zealand in open ocean sometime around March 20. Vayada said the orbiter would emerge on the horizon over the Indian capital at just after 7:33 p.m. (00:03 GMT) on Tuesday and would complete its arc less than three minutes later. It would be visible for only about a minute because it would be shrouded in pollution on the horizon and it would also take some time for watchers to focus on it. "Prefer viewing with naked eye,'' he said. "Don't try hunting it with a telescope, it's only visible for one minute. If you really want use a bino with wide field of view, but first locate Mir with the naked eye.''
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