Russian Mission Control, offering reassuring words about its command over Mir, said preparations are under way to deorbit the space station robotically via a Progress cargo ship.

"While the problem with a telemetric information transmitter aboard Mir remains, the aging Russian outpost is completely under control," Vsevolod Latyshev, a Mission Control Center spokesman, told SPACE.com.

"So far there is no reason for concern," said Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko, deputy Rosaviacosmos (space agency) spokesman. "A Progress spacecraft with increased fuel capacity is poised for launch atop a Soyuz booster [for liftoff] on January 16. If everything goes as planned, there will be no need for a crew to fly to Mir."

What may be the last pilotless cargo ship to journey to the 120-ton outpost will carry as much as 2.5 times more fuel than a typical Progress. The plan is to fire the Progress' engines counter to Mir's flight path long enough to slow it so it reenters the atmosphere.

Progress extra fuel capacity will be achieved at the expense of the food, water and personal belongings that are usually delivered to the station when there is a crew aboard. Mir has been orbiting without cosmonauts since June.

"If nothing were done to Mir, the outpost would not fall on Earth earlier than in March-April 2001," said Yuri Koptev, Rosaviacosmos General Director. But plans remain to bring Mir down in the Pacific Ocean at the end of February.

"Russia will assure [Mir's] controlled deorbiting," Koptev said. "If the Progress fails to dock to the station, a crew will fly to the outpost to perform a manual docking. A Soyuz spacecraft which is supposed to bring this crew to the station is currently located at Baikonur in a state of 12 days' readiness."

Two of Russia's most experienced cosmonauts -- Gennady Padalka (mission commander) and Nikolai Budarin (flight engineer) -- will make up the "emergency crew" if the station cannot be deorbited in the automatic mode. They currently are training in Star City -- Russia's center for astronautics -- for their possible mission.

Regarding Mission Control's troubles in communicating with Mir in the past two weeks, Koptev denied claims that he has withheld information from the public.

"We dont want people to panic," he said. "The loss of radio communication does not mean that the station will fall on somebodys head in five minutes. We want to take our time, to determine the reason for malfunction and later inform the public."

Tito's potential "host crew" named

Mir initially was to host the man who intends to become the world's first space tourist -- Dennis Tito. With Mir coming down, Tito and his supporters have shifted their focus to the International Space Station (ISS), currently orbiting Earth with a three-man crew.

Various indications have been given by the Russian space agency that Tito indeed will fly aboard a Soyuz TM spacecraft to the international station on a launch set for April 30.

Tito's crew mates on this "taxi mission" will be Talgat Musabayev (mission commander) and Yuri Baturin (flight engineer), said Col.-Gen. Pyotr Klimuk, Star City chief. The flight, however, may be postponed.

Klimuk made it clear that all plans related to Tito's trip to space remain tentative. They need to be approved by the Russian Interdepartmental Commission and NASA. Tito also must pass a more intensive medical examination.