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Subj: Latest Mir News
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for <SAREX@amsat.org>; Mon, 10 Jan 2000 16:47:28 -0500 (EST)
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 16:47:28 EST
Subject: [sarex] Mir News
To: SAREX@amsat.org
Russians Say U.S. Firm May Save Space Station
By Robert Eksuzyan
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Mir space station, which has circled the earth
empty since August, may be sent another crew this year for an extended
flight, paid for by a U.S. firm, Mir's builders said Monday.
Mir has been empty and partly shut down since August and is to be crashed
into the Pacific Ocean unless Russian officials can find funds to keep it
aloft.
Sergei Gromov, spokesman for Russia's Energiya rocket builder, told Reuters
by telephone that a U.S. firm, Golden Apple, had promised to send $20 million
by March to continue the program.
Gromov said the builders planned to send a crew to Mir in March for a mission
lasting at least 45 days. He said the U.S. firm had already paid $7 million
of the $20 million promised, but gave no further details about the company.
``It is technically possible to continue the flight. We are waiting for two
authorities to confirm the decision. One is the Russian Space Agency, which
is holding a meeting Wednesday, and then the government itself must give
consent,'' Gromov said.
If the Mir program were to be ended, a crew would probably fly to the station
for a brief mission to shut it down before it was guided on a crash course
into the Pacific.
Russia Has Most Experience In Long-Term Space Flight
The Mir program has given Russia by far the world's most extensive experience
of long-term manned space flight, and the country is using that knowledge to
build the main living quarters of the new $60 billion International Space
Station.
But the new station has been repeatedly delayed and the United States wants
Russia to abandon Mir and focus its resources on the new orbiter.
Mir has stayed in orbit long past its original five-year lifespan and was
plagued by problems in the late 1990s. Russian space officials have been
reluctant to abandon the prize achievement of their space program.
Over the past year, various schemes have been floated to find commercial
funding or private donors to save Mir.
Last year a British entrepreneur, Peter Llewellyn, promised $100 million to
save Mir if he were allowed to ride on it, but he never paid up and was sent
home before completing a training course at Russia's Star City space base.
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