KOROLYOV (Interfax) -- The aging and problem-plagued Russian space station Mir will plunge into the Pacific Ocean on March 20, give or take a day, Viktor Blagov, deputy mission controller, said at a Wednesday news conference at the Mission Control Center in Korolyov, outside Moscow.
"Everything will depend on the Earth's atmosphere and fluctuations in solar activity, which are very hard to predict," he said.
The station is currently orbiting at an altitude of 158.5 miles (255.1 kilometers), dropping at an average rate of 1.1 miles (1.8 kilometers) per day. When its altitude reaches 155 miles (250 kilometers) above Earth, Mission Control engineers will evaluate the performance of the spaceborne control system and atmospheric variables, Blagov said. All control center's services are prepared for this, he added.
By March 20, Mir's altitude is expected to have dropped to 137 miles (220 kilometers).
If everything goes according to plan, on March 19 the station will take the necessary orientation and the next day braking thrusts will be programmed in, Blagov said. The first two will set the descent path, and in the course of two orbits the station will receive signals triggering the final braking thrust. The station's descent will take 45 minutes.
While the braking will start within the range of the ground control systems, the reentry and burn-up stages will be outside their range. However, a U.S. tracking station may observe the fall of the station's intact parts.
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