The 130-ton Mir, the precursor to the ISS, had beencriticized as no longer useful after exceeding its original life span almostfive times, and was accused of soaking up Russian funds from going towards building thespace station.

After a 14-year orbit, the death of Mir is unsurprising but welcome, saidagency officials and space experts.

NASA spokeswoman KirstenLarson said the decision was Russias to make. "Our concern at NASA isthat the Russians always have adequate resources for space station," shesaid.

"It is an end of anera," said John Logsdon of the Space Policy Institute at George WashingtonUniversity. "It marks a move on to a next stage."

Russian officials announcedThursday they would crash Mir into the Pacific Ocean on February 27 or 28. Thedecision came after private investors failed to devise a way to keep it inorbit. MirCorp leased the station and sought to use it for commercial purposes,but failed to come up with funds.

Dropping Mir frustratesplans for commercial ventures, however. Such business opportunities are lessclear for the ISS, even as NASA plans to open the international complex to anon-governmental organization.

"It would have beennice to have some experience with commercial operations aboard Mir before doingcommercial operations aboard [the] station," said Scott Pace, seniorpolicy analyst at RAND.

Downing Mir frees up thelimited amount of Soyuz and Progress vehicles needed to ferry parts andsupplies to the ISS. The vehicles are the primary Russian contributionsnecessary to complete the outpost by 2006, and are especially needed in a glutof near-term missions.

Given the economic uncertainty,dropping Mir is "probably a necessary and good thing in order for them tosupport the International Space Station," said one NASA official, speakingon condition of anonymity.

The Russian commitment tothe ISS continues to be politically sensitive on Capitol Hill, however.Congress recently voted to crack down on Russia to uphold its end of thebargain. A recent bill urges the next NASA administrator to take a tougherstand and demand that Russia meet its requirements or face the loss of its scientificuse of the ISS upon completion.

The Mir has been a sourceof national pride for Russia, and has served as a training ground for Americanand Russian astronauts. One benefit to life sciences studies provided data usedto analyze the effects of space on the bone structure of Mir astronauts overseveral months in orbit.