MOSCOW, March 8 (Interfax) -- The average altitude of the Russian space station Mir has descended by another 1.1 miles (1.8 kilometers) to 157.4 miles (253.3 kilometers) in the past 24 hours, the Russian space agency Mission Control Center located in the town of Korolyov outside Moscow has told Interfax.

During communication sessions over the past 24 hours, controllers checked the condition of Mir's flight systems and radio-controlled its orbit. The data obtained indicates that the orbital station remains sealed, its thermal regime is normal and the parameters of the flight systems correspond to the calculated ones. At the present time, Mir is flying freely and is aerodynamically slowing down in the layers of the upper atmosphere.