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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacques Chitte who wrote (58086)	1/9/2001 9:00:58 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 71178

Eeeek. >>Russia begins final preparations to bring down Mir MOSCOW (AFP) Nov 22, 2000 Russia began final preparations Wednesday to bring down the aging Mir space station, with a proud chapter in Soviet history due to end next February when the pioneering craft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. Russian technicians started equipping the Progress cargo ship which is due to blast off on a historic voyage from the Kazakhstan's Baikonur launching pad early next year. "Progress will be sent to Mir at the end of January" so that it can bring Mir down to Earth around February 27-28, Russian Space Agency press secretary Sergei Gorbunov told AFP. "We still have plenty of work left to do before the launch," he added. "We have to fit the craft (Progress) with the necessary equipment, and then check all of its systems." Progress will latch on to Mir, which has been uninhabited since June, and then send it off on its downward voyage almost 15 years to the day after it first reached orbit. But Mir's last trip could hold surprises in store, with Russian experts warning that plans for a controlled descent into the Earth's atmosphere were anything but risk-free. Most of the station's component modules would burn up on reaching the Earth's atmosphere, but some debris would fall over a swathe some 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) long and 200 kilometres (125 miles) wide in the Pacific Ocean. It is quite possible that steel spherical bottles, parts of large module frames, gyros and rocket engines would hit land, said RIA-Novosti news agency. spacedaily.com