Financiers hope for Mir reprieve

Mir looks likely to end its days next February

The company that owns the rights for the commercial use of Mir says it will fight a decision to ditch the space station in the Pacific Ocean on its 15th birthday.

The Russian Government has endorsed a plan to destroy the ageing space platform at the end of February 2001.

MirCorp will go down fighting

Jeffrey Lenorovitz

But MirCorp said on Friday that it was still awaiting official notification on the future of Mir and was continuing to seek investors.

MirCorp's spokesperson Jeffrey Lenorovitz told BBC News Online: "MirCorp will go down fighting, as it has always said.

"MirCorp is working on investment policies and plans and will continue to do so as long as the station is up and until a firm, final decision is made."

MirCorp said it believed a final decision would be made by the Russian president in the next two weeks.

But space analysts say there is very little chance that the station will be granted a reprieve.

Controlled descent

On Thursday, a cabinet meeting approved a plan to de-orbit the platform between 26 and 28 February, 2001.

The station will be ditched in a controlled descent that will send it hurtling into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, 1,500-2,000 kilometres east of Australia.

"The government has agreed that (Mir) be taken out of orbit and brought down into the Pacific Ocean in a pre-determined area off Australia between 26 and 28 February," Yuri Koptev, Russia's space agency boss, told reporters after the meeting.

"Nothing can last for eternity - even the Mir."

Many space analysts have said that given Russia's financial problems it was only a matter of time before Mir was abandoned.

For the past year, Russia has sought the backing of private investors to keep the 140-tonne station, once a symbol of Soviet space glory, in orbit. But the money raised has fallen short of that required to pay for the platform's running costs.

'Russian roulette'

The private Netherlands-based MirCorp leased time on the station and pledged to raise more cash through a stock flotation. But the Russian Government has grown increasingly sceptical about the company's ability to raise all the money required.

"We cannot continue this game...which I call Russian roulette," said Yuri Koptev. "We simply don't have the right to do that, because we are a government agency responsible for the safety of the Mir."

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told Thursday's cabinet meeting that Russia had an international commitment to discard the Mir safely.

"One of our obligations is to ensure the safety of the final stage of the Mir's flight," he said.

It is likely a cargo ship will be used to push the station quickly into the atmosphere over the Pacific. Officials have said they may even send up a new crew to the Mir in January to prepare the craft for the final descent.

If this really is the final decision on Mir, it will please the American space agency, Nasa. The US has urged Russia to dump Mir and concentrate its scarce resources on the new International Space Station (ISS), a 16-nation project led by the Americans.