"To the world"

The Russian government is mentally prepared to order the sinking of the Mir orbital station. This can be judged from yesterday's statement by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who quite confidently told reporters that the station would be deorbited and flooded at the end of February 2001. Despite the inevitable reservation in such cases that the situation could develop differently if extra-budgetary sources of funding are found, Mr. Klebanov’s tone still indicated the absence of doubts.

Confirmation of Ilya Klebanov’s words in the form of an official government decision on “Peace” should apparently appear in the near future. In any case, experts from Rosaviakosmos are already finalizing their conclusion. The press service of this department told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper that, although the board of Rosaviakosmos has not yet made a final verdict on the fate of the station, an opinion on this issue has long been formed. So, essentially, only technical details are being discussed: how to sink Mir in a deserted area of ​​the Pacific Ocean with minimal risk (including to the reputation of the domestic space industry). Experts are now deciding whether it would be advisable to send cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Pavel Vinogradov to the station early next year to prepare it for sinking, or whether Mir could be deorbited using a cheaper “scenario.”

And yet, Ilya Klebanov’s words yesterday provoked a number of emotional statements in defense of Mir. Only the speech of Jeffrey Manber, head of the MirCorp company created for the commercial use of the orbital station, can be considered relatively constructive. In an interview with Interfax, Mr. Manber promised to raise between $70 million and $100 million next year and asked the Russian government for a deferment. In addition, the head of MirCorp expressed the hope that the final decision will rest with President Vladimir Putin, who earlier this year spoke very flatteringly about the Russian orbital complex and promised to help ensure that it remains in space for as long as possible.

Oleg VOLKOV