Russia's aged space station Mir may be dumped to a watery grave in the Pacific Ocean by late summer, since efforts to find private investors to keep it aloft are failing, according to a report Friday in the Space Today section of Florida Today.
Three cosmonauts are preparing for a voyage to the space station next week, but their main job may be to take it down, the publication reported. The story quoted Russian Space Agency director Yuri Kopteve as saying that if no investor is found, officials will have to decide whether to discard Mir in August or September.
The effort to find private investment for Mir was spearheaded by RSC Energia, the aerospace company that operates the station for the government.
Mir, which has been in orbit for about 13 years, got conditional approval from Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to stay in orbit through 2002. But the decree required RSC Energia find private investors to cover the expenses of keeping the station aloft, the report said.
Shutting down the space station would deal a blow to Russian prestige, since the station is widely seen as the only remaining symbol of the former Soviet Union's achievements in space.
