BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Two cosmonauts due to bring Russia's dormant Mir space station back to life this week got a clean bill of health Monday.

Their mission to the 14-year-old orbiting craft will be Russia's first piloted flight since Mir was put on autopilot a year ago prior to its planned scrapping. Fresh foreign funds have now given the station a new lease of life.

"The cosmonauts are healthy and the Soyuz PM-30 is also in readiness for the flight," Lieutenant-General Valery Green, head of a special intergovernmental space commission, told Reuters.

Russia, determined to pursue an independent space program, decided to go ahead with a new mission after getting $20 million from a group of foreign investors.

Mir, plagued by accidents in recent years, was to have been scrapped this year. The plan was to send it plunging toward Earth so that it burned up in the atmosphere.

The task for Zalyotin and Kalyeri is to spruce up the station for possible future crews. Zalyotin said the mission could be extended if more funds became available.

He said one of their jobs was to find the reason for a pressure drop in the station and to fix it.

"The plan is for us to stay for 45 days because we have enough funds for that," he said. "But if additional means are found, we may stay until August when we shall be replaced by another crew."

He said that if more funds were not forthcoming, he and flight engineer Kalyeri would again put Mir on autopilot.

Their needle-like Soyuz rocket is already on the launch pad ready for takeoff. Last month a Progress M 1-1 supply ship docked with Mir with fuel and water.

Zalyotin said he and Kalyeri would follow an old Baikonur tradition by watching the classic Russian film "Beloye Solntse Pustinny" (White Sun of the Desert) on the eve of their flight.