On Thursday, members of Russia's Liberal-Democratic Party put forward a resolution in the Duma, the lower chamber in Russia's parliament, aimed at rescuing the Mir space station.

The resolution was initiated by Alexei Mitrofanov, a representative of the ultranationalist party headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Communist Party deputies and veteran cosmonauts Vitaly Sevastianov and Svetlana Savitskaya supported this resolution.

The document called on the Russian government to find both budgeted and extra-budgetary means ($200 million to $250 million overall) to support the continuous manned operation of the Mir space station.

The resolution was approved during the second reading. `

The resolution follows the November 16 announcement by Yuri Koptev, the general director of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviacosmos) that the space station would be crashed into the Pacific Ocean on February 27 or 28, 2001.

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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, Koptev said at a news conference.

"Right now we are at such a stage in the operation of Mir that any of its systems could well fail at any time," Koptev said.

NASA officials, who have long felt that Russia was diluting resources for the fledgling International Space Station program by prolonging Mir's life, welcomed the announcement.

Mir has been a source of national pride for Russia, and has served as a training ground for American and Russian astronauts. Prolonged missions to Mir have greatly benefited life-sciences studies by providing data on the effects of a weightless environment on the bone structure of cosmonauts who have spent many months in orbit.