would be crashed into the Pacific Ocean on February 27 or 28.The station will be brought out of orbit and back to Earth over the Pacific Ocean 900 to 1,250 miles (1,500 to 2,000 kilometers) from Australia, Yuri Koptev, the general director of the Russian space agency said at a news conference.
Sergei Zaletin, Mirs last commander, told SPACE.com that he felt that all the work he did during that final mission, which went April to June of this year, would be wasted.
"Sasha (Alexander Kalery, Mirs last flight engineer) and I spent a lot of time tuning the stations equipment, fixing it, looking for an air leak in one of Mirs modules and sealing it," Zaletin recalled. "I wish another crew could have make use of the results of our flight."
For Sergey Avdeev, the veteran cosmonaut who in the course of his career spent almost two years on the station, the destruction of Mir goes hand-in-hand with the Russian space industry's current dormant period.
"The decision is a reflection of the existing status quo in the Russian space industry," Avdeev told SPACE.com. "The manufacturing and designing cycle in the field of rocket space technology lasts about eight months. That means that any action in this field must be prepared at least eight months in advance. Since no Soyuz- or Progress-type spacecraft were earmarked in mid 1999 for the continuing operation of Mir beyond 2001, Russia has no choice but to deorbit Mir."
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"I feel sorry that none of Mirs extremely valuable and unique equipment could be transferred to ISS," said Avdeev.
According to Avdeev, "it would be desirable to have two operational space stations in orbit, like the Soviet Union had for a while with both Salyut 7 and Mir."
Russia made several attempts to integrate Mir into the International Space Station (ISS) program. The first attempt took place in 1995, when Russia proposed to use the then 10-year-old outpost's core module for the ISS instead of Zvezda, a new service module. Even though Mir proved itself a robust and effective science platform, U.S. politicians made it clear that using the Mir core module instead of the Zvezda service module was not an option.
Another attempt to link the two programs was made in November 1998, shortly before the launch of the first element of the ISS, the Zarya module. Russian space officials wanted to delay its launch by 10 hours. A delay would have allowed the placement of the Zarya module in the same orbital inclination as Mir, thus facilitating the transfer of equipment and crews (in case of emergency) between the two outposts.
NASA objected to this decision. According to Lynn Cline, deputy NASA associate administrator for External Relations, NASA had no principal opposition to any Mir integration into the ISS program. NASA officials did not agree with the Russian plan because "we really did not understand this decision. It had not been thoroughly explored, and we have all already agreed on another schedule."
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