At this point in time there are basically three ways to control Mir during its remaining month in orbit. The first option is to activate the spacecraft's gyrodines, the huge gyroscopic devices that maintain its orbital attitude. However, this approach proved to be unreliable as the gyrodines were deactivated due to a power failure last December causing the to station drift in space.

The second option is to maintain the outposts attitude by using the vessel's small jet maneuvering thrusters. Such a solution would require much of the fuel that otherwise would be used for the assured safe deorbiting of the outpost.

It appears Russia's Mission Control will shift the station onto its axis, thus stabilizing the craft like a bullet in flight. The gyrodines and maneuvering thrusters will be used sparingly to assure the stations proper orbital attitude right before its deorbit. At that moment Mir will be flying at an altitude of approximately 125 miles (200 kilometers).

Semenov said that a crews presence aboard the station would have helped to avoid the problems with power, which had happened in Mir last December.

During its 15-year lifetime, Mir had experienced over a hundred dockings with various Russian and American spacecraft.

Semenov blasted proposals by some space specialists and enthusiasts aimed at the rescuing Mir as unrealistic and 'non-professional".

"We tried to do this with Salyut 7 when we moved it to higher orbit. Everybody knows what the result of that attempt was," Semenov said, referring the fact that this attempt ended up plunging Salyut 7 uncontrollably into atmosphere where it crashed in the Chilean Andes in 1991. "Why get into the same trouble again?"