|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
NASA Says Mir's Fate is Sealed
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief
posted: 05:52 pm ET
03 October 2000
|
The future of Mir has been a matter of somewhat contentious debate for several years now, and the Russians have openly ta The future of the Mir space station has been a matter of somewhat contentious debate for several years now, and the Russians have openly talked about deorbiting the venerable station as a way to cajole from the federal government more money to keep the complex alive. But NASA officials said Tuesday that it appears the fate of Mir this time might be sealed. "As you know, February is the month of the 15th anniversary of Mir being on orbit, and all indications are that they are planning to deorbit Mir," a senior manager with NASAs International Space Station Project Office, told reporters at Kennedy Space Center. Doing so will call for the Russians to launch a pair of fuel-toting Progress space freighters to accurately push the station toward a destructive plunge through the atmosphere. Any surviving chunks of debris then would splash down in uninhabited areas of the Pacific Ocean. Questions, however, still loom about the Russians ability to pay for the two Progress freighters while maintaining its commitments to the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS). ISS plans now call for the Russians to launch between three and five Progress freighters a year to tote fuel and supplies to the new international outpost. Cabana, however, said NASA officials are confident the Russians will be able to cobble together enough money to both bury Mir and raise the new international station, if the situation indeed comes to that. "Im sure that the Russians are going to do the right thing they are not going to let it deorbit uncontrolled," Cabana said. He added that the Russians already have developed a plan to send a Progress to Mir in the coming months with enough fuel to stabilize the station until February.
|
|
|
|
|
