MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian space officials on Thursday put off the tentative date for dumping the Mir space station until mid March, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The 15-year-old station would be brought down between March 13 and March 18, the news agency said, citing Sergei Gorbunov, chief spokesman of the Russian space agency (Rosaviacosmos). The dumping was previously set for March 6.
Experts have predicted that atmospheric conditions during the later period would allow more of the orbiter to burn up as it enters Earth's atmosphere.
The government reluctantly decided late last year to finally bring down Mir -- once the symbol of Russia's space glory, but more recently the source of persistent safety worries. Launched on Feb. 20, 1986, Mir has been home to more than 100 cosmonauts and foreign astronauts, but it has been plagued in recent years by accidents including a fire and a near-fatal collision with a cargo ship in 1997.
When the dumping date comes, a cargo ship docked with Mir is to fire its thrusters and send the 137-ton station hurtling from its orbit.
The remnants should land in the Pacific Ocean, near 47 degrees south latitude and 140 degrees west longitude -- about halfway between New Zealand and Chile. Officials have said that chunks of Mir, some weighing up to 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms), would survive the fiery reentry and splash into the ocean half an hour after the orbiter enters the atmosphere.
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