The Russian Space Agency finds itself in an odd balancing act: It must determine when it can pull the plug on Mir and when it will be able to complete its piece of the International Space Station.
Russian funding problems have forced launch delay of the long-awaited International Space Station. Russia is in charge of building the module where astronauts will live, a project that was already eight months behind schedule before the latest problems.
The International Space Station is the most ambitious effort ever to construct a permanent, manned presence in space. The space agencies of the United States, Japan, Russia, and Europe are collaborating on the estimated US$20 billion mission.
The first part of the station, the cargo module, was originally scheduled for a June launch. The International Space Station liftoff now is tentatively scheduled for late October, but that could be changed once again, said Boris Ostroumov, deputy head of the Russian Space Agency.
US and European space officials have been meeting in Moscow this week to revamp the launch schedule, which depends upon each nation completing its part within a certain window. When one project goes off schedule, the rest of the project is thrown off kilter as well.
"The Russia part is probably the biggest uncertainty, and the funding uncertainty for the past two years had continued to be the biggest problem," explained Randy Brinkley, who is leading NASA experts in talks with Russian officials this week.
Meanwhile, Russian officials are planning Mir's demise. The battered space station -- which was only supposed to be operational for five years following its launch in 1986 -- has managed to eke out 12 years in orbit. But it is showing its age, and Russian space officials must now determine when the craft will be put out to pasture. For now, officials plan to send a cargo spacecraft to Mir on 15 May. The craft, which will carry extra fuel, will use its engines to drag the 124-ton Mir into a lower orbit, said a Russian space agency official.
He said the lowering process would last about eight months and require the launch of two to four cargo craft. In this time, Mir will be lowered to an orbit 80 miles above the Earth. Russian space officials believe Mir will eventually burn up in the upper atmosphere, though parts may fall in the ocean.
Yurt Foster, the head of the Russian Space Agency, has said that Mir's fate will not become clear before the end of 1999. And the timetable for Mir's retirement may hinge on the ever-changing schedule of the International Space Station, officials said.
An official announcement of the International Space Station launch is scheduled for next month.
Reuters contributed to this report.
