RE: Mir future
jeff@satellite.eu.org
Mon, 9 Mar 98 19:42:05
--- On Tue, 10 Mar 1998 01:22:07 Johannes Mueller
<Joh.Mueller@rz-online.de> wrote in part:
>I wonder, wether there are concrete plans about Mir's future. Will it be
>deorbited, and if so, in pieces or how will they do it?
Although this is somewhat off-topic for SeeSat-L I will comment that I
have not seen anything concrete on de-orbiting Mir, at least not on the
net. Russia plans to keep Mir in service at least until after 1999.
I have seen comments that it would take at least three dedicated Soyuz
launches to de-orbit Mir into several sections using Progress vessels.
Suposedily, Russia doesn't have the resources to de-orbit Mir AND support
launching of the various components of the ISS.
I've even seen information that the US might assist in the deorbit of Mir
if the Interim Control Module is not required to substitute for the
Service Module delays.
If anyone has further information I would appreciate learning about it in
private mailing. Another information source for information related to
Mir is the list server FPSpace. See
http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~jgreen/fpspace.html
for further info.
Regards,
Jeff Hunt <jeff@satellite.eu.org>
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/iss.html