MOSCOW, March 10 (Interfax) -- Russia's aging space station Mir will be taken out of operation and dumped in the Pacific Ocean in 10 days.
Mir's sinking is scheduled for March 20, give or take a day, Russia's Mission Control Center in Korolyov, Moscow Region, told Interfax on Saturday.
The space station is now orbiting at approximately 155 miles (250 kilometers) above Earth. That altitude is expected to decrease by 5,900 to 6,560 feet (1,800 to 2,000 meters) a day. It is now expected that the station, which weighs 134 tons (137 tonnes), will drop to 137 miles (220 kilometers) from Earth. Specialists believe that this will happen by March 19, if nothing unexpected happens.
Mission Control will then put Mir into the proper orientation, and in 24 hours signal for braking thrusts necessary for deorbiting the station.
The first two impulses will be used for building the trajectory of Mir's plunge back to Earth. During the next two circuits, the Mission Control will check the orbital parameters and then will send the final braking impulse to dump the station into the Pacific Ocean. After this, the very last leg of the station's journey will take 45 minutes, Mission Control specialists say.
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