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Mir Deorbit Dates Moved Back; Event Insured to the Tune of $200 Million
By Interfax
posted: 11:09 am ET
06 March 2001
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MOSCOW MOSCOW, March 6 (Interfax) -- The final order for deorbiting the Mir space station and sinking it in a desolate stretch of the south Pacific will be given between March 17 and 20, said Leonid Gorshkov, one of the station's makers, at a Tuesday news conference in Moscow. Responsibility to third parties for possible damages related to the deorbiting of the station will be insured for about $200 million, spokesman for the head of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency Sergei Gorbunov has told Interfax. He said the matter will be settled within the next two days. Three companies -- Megaruss, AVIKOS and the Industrial Insurance Company -- are regarded as the general insurers of risks. In the first half of March Mir will reach the critical altitude of 155 miles (250 kilometers), after which Mission Control will start planning the trajectory of its descent. The 137-ton station will enter dense layers of the atmosphere above the Pacific north of New Zealand and will start to break up. According to expert estimates, most of the fragments should melt down and burn. The unburned fragments -- of which there may be up to 1,500 -- are expected to weigh some 20-25 tons. The fragments should fall in the southern part of the Pacific between Australia and South America over a 3,728-mile (6,000-kilometer) long and 125-mile (200-kilometer) wide area.
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