mir 20march

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="002285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>glialessandrini</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="glialessandrini"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="glialessandrini"><U>glialessandrini</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="underwater city discovered"><U>underwater city discovered</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id132.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="télé lumière"><U>télé lumière</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="elton johns"><U>elton john's</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id126.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="magida"><U>magida</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id119.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="400 years old"><U>400 years old</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id124.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="psychic"><U>psychic</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id102.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="relax !"><U>relax !</U></A>   |   <B>mir 20march</B>   |   <A HREF="id96.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="antelias record"><U>antelias record</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id95.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="miss internet"><U>miss internet</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="tabbouleh"><U>tabbouleh</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="the Maronites"><U>the Maronites</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="the sixth day"><U>the sixth day</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="deapsea"><U>deap-sea</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="cinema"><U>cinema</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MZ??"><U>MZ??</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ski in leb"><U>ski in leb</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Beirut"><U>Beirut</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="fairuz"><U>fairuz</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eiffel tower"><U>Eiffel tower</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="the man"><U>the man</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="001d2c00dkelyh.gif"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="136c8860.jpg" border=0 width="200" height="134" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Burning out, not fading away</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>glialessandrini</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Mir set to hit Earth March 20 as 30-tonne fireball</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="759" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="622"><div> Thursday, March 08, 2001 (Reuters) </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="130"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="130" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div>      Russian space officials on Wednesday set March 20 for dumping the Mir space station, saying they want to wait until the craft drifts closer to Earth before giving it a final shove toward a fiery plunge into the Pacific Ocean. </div> <div> However, they warned that the date for Mir's long-delayed demise may still vary depending on solar activity, which expands the atmosphere and creates friction with the 15-year-old station. </div> <div> Space officials had previously said they would start steps to prepare for Mir's controlled descent after its orbit drops to about 250 kilometers by the end of this week. But Viktor Blagov, the deputy mission control chief, said Wednesday that space engineers decided to let the orbiter descend to 212 kilometers before discarding it. </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="122" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 14 WIDTH="118"><div> <B>OPTIONS</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Mission control spokesperson Valery Lyndin said that controllers want Mir to move closer to ensure that they have as much fuel as possible for the final push. </div> <div> "The closer to Earth the station comes, the less fuel is needed," he said. </div> <div> The trickiest part of the preparations will include bringing Mir, which is now in a slow rolling and rotating motion, to a steady position in orbit. The process will require fuel and a lot of electric power, and Mir's batteries are old and unstable. </div> <div> Mission control lost contact with Mir for 20 hours in December because of a sudden power loss. Space officials have since tried to minimize power consumption by switching off most of the station's equipment. They have also allowed Mir to roll, because keeping it stable would use limited fuel reserves. </div> <div> Blagov said that mission control would stabilize Mir just one day before the dumping, and played down fears of a power outage or a computer glitch resulting in a chaotic plunge. </div> <div> "We have seen numerous voltage and communications problems, but they posed no danger to the station because we were always able to recharge the batteries," Blagov said. </div> <div> In case Mir's skittish central computer fails, mission control can direct the descent using the computer on the Progress cargo ship docked with the Mir, Blagov said. </div> <bR> <div> <B>A controlled descent</B> </div> <div> On March 20, the Progress will fire its engines twice during two consecutive orbits and then, several hours later, fire again to send the 130-tonne station hurtling toward the Pacific between Australia and Chile. The last maneuver will take place over Russia so mission control can monitor it using Russian radar stations. </div> <div> "The station will descend over Russia, China and then head down into the Pacific Ocean," Blagov said. He said it would take about 45 minutes from the last engine push for the station's debris to reach the Earth's surface. </div> <div> Blagov said mission control has vast experience dumping spacecraft, because cargo ships are disposed of the same way. Most of Mir will burn up in the atmosphere, but some 1,500 fragments with a total weight of up to 30 tones are expected to make it to the surface. </div> <div> On Tuesday, Russian officials said they were negotiating a $200 million US insurance policy against any damage the orbiter could cause when it plunges to Earth. </div> <div> Past re-entry accidents have included the 1978 crash of a Soviet satellite in northern Canada, scattering radioactive fragments over the wilderness but causing no injuries. </div> <div> A year later, the unoccupied US Skylab space station fell to Earth after its orbit deteriorated faster than expected. Ground controllers tried to aim it into the ocean, but debris came down on a sparsely populated area in western Australia. No one was hurt. </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>