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ZL2TZE > MIR 16.07.99 08:06l 59 Lines 2410 Bytes #-9756 (0) @ WW
BID : 32006-ZL2TZE
Read: GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: [sarex] BBC on Mir
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From: ZL2TZE@ZL2TZE.#73.MLB.NZL.OC
To : MIR@WW
Here's the BBC version of the MIR Re-Supply story.
The Kazakhstan government will allow a vital flight to the Mir space station
to take off from its Baikonur launch pad on 16 July, said government
spokesman Sergei Sivun.
The agreement with Russia ends the ban on launches imposed by Kazakhstan
after a Proton booster rocket carrying a Russian military satellite exploded
shortly after lift-off last week. Proton debris rained on Kazakhstan.
Russia owes $150m for leasing the launch pad from the former Soviet republic.
A Russian delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, agreed to
pay $50m in cash by November and $65m in goods by next year.
The rocket explosion led to widespread dispersal of toxic rocket fuel and a
part of the rocket fell into a woman's backyard, several hundred kilometres
away.
The Kazakh authorities then made a number of demands:
Payment of the rent owed An detailed enquiry into the rocket explosion
Compensation for environmental and infrastructure damage
However, the Russian media have said the ban was imposed solely to force
Russia to pay its debt.
The flight to Mir is needed to deliver food and water to the three cosmonauts
on board. It will also bring equipment essential for maintaining control of
the space station when the cosmonauts leave and the station is mothballed in
August.
The plan is that Mir will eventually fall to Earth, burning up in the
atmosphere. But the Russian Space Agency had warned that without the new
equipment Mir could shower the Earth with debris.
"We must not allow the Mir space station to fly out of control," said the
head of the Russian Space Agency, Yuri Koptev.
"The chances of being hit over the head by bits of the space station are
equal for all, whether you are Russian or Kazakh, or indeed from any other
country falling within a 51 degree radius either side of Mir."
The supply flight was due to lift-off on Wednesday. The Russians said 20 July
was the last date possible for the launch - after that Mir moves to a new
orbit, making it very difficult to reach the space station.
The latest launch failure is of concern to the nations involved in the
International Space Station because the next phase of the project is due to
be launched on board a Proton vehicle in November.
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