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DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTEUR
HAMBURG, Aug 24: Russian space officials are pressing ahead with their plans to dispose of the troubled Mir Space Station by allowing it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere at the end of next year.
The costly exercise requires the utmost precision to ensure that the aging space vehicle is nudged into the right trajectory so that most of it vaporises and the rest splashes down harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean.
The last crew is expected to leave in early summer, allowing scientists to plot the final stages of its descent into the atmosphere with the help of progress cargo ships docked to Mir.
The unmanned transport craft have been the main supply vehicles for the cosmonauts manning the 33-metre-long space complex during its 13-year life span.
They will be used to push the 120-ton Mir down from its present altitude of 400 km above earth to 130 kilometres, before it burns up in the atmosphere in December 1999. One of the cargo ships is already docked to the orbital complex. It will be joined by another HAMBURG, Aug 24: Russian space officials are pressing ahead with their plans to dispose of the troubled Mir Space Station by allowing it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere at the end of next year.
The costly exercise requires the utmost precision to ensure that the aging space vehicle is nudged into the right trajectory so that most of it vaporises and the rest splashes down harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean.
The last crew is expected to leave in early summer, allowing scientists to plot the final stages of its descent into the atmosphere with the help of progress cargo ships docked to Mir.
The unmanned transport craft have been the main supply vehicles for the cosmonauts manning the 33-metre-long space complex during its 13-year life span.
They will be used to push the 120-ton Mir down from its present altitude of 400 km above earth to 130 kilometres, before it burns up in the atmosphere in December 1999. One of the cargo ships is already docked to the orbital complex. It will be joined by anotherone in September in preparation for the gradual descent.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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