Death of Mir foretold

Russia has begun planning the destruction of its ageing Mir space station, after deciding to end its fourteen-year career in orbit.

The aim is to make the station re-enter the Earth's atmosphere next February, so that its wreckage crashes harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean.

One of the experts at the Russian space centre Nikolai Ivanov said no-one had ever tried before to bring such a big and heavy object safely down from space.

He said everything would depend on being able to retain control of Mir during the operation. Mir was originally intended to have a life of only five years and the BBC Moscow correspondent says it remains a triumph of Russian technology.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service