In Brief:

July 19, 2000
Web posted at: 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT)

From staff reports

(CNN) -- A corporation leasing the Russian space station Mir will send two manned flights to the aging orbiting outpost in 2001, the company said this week.

The crew of the second mission will include Dennis Tito, a U.S. stock market fund manager who agreed to spend millions of dollars to become a tourist in space.

MirCorp, a Holland-based group of investors seeking to use the Russian-owned Mir for commercial purposes, announced the 2001 flight schedule at a meeting in Moscow.

The company plans to launch an unmanned supply ship this autumn to Mir, which has remained vacant since two MirCorp cosmonauts completed repairs in June on the 14-year-old orbiting outpost.

Two cosmonauts will spend several months aboard Mir early next year, MirCorp said. Tito will join a two-man Russian replacement crew later in the year and stay aboard the station for about 10 days.

PARIS (Reuters) -- Western Europe's Arianespace consortium said Wednesday it delayed the launch of an Ariane 4 rocket slated to orbit two satellites until August 17.

The launch was initially planned for August 11. Arianespace gave no specific reason for the delay but said the new date was "based on the current operational planning for the launcher and the two satellites."

The flight will attempt to orbit the Nilesat 102 satellite for Egypt and Brazil's Brasilsat B4 satellite.

Technical problems forced the company last week to put off to September an Ariane 5 rocket launch that was planned for July 25.

(CNN) -- Explorers attempting to simulate martian conditions will try this week to erect a Mars research station in the Arctic, despite a failed airdrop of critical parts.

Mars Society researchers on Canada's Devon Island plan to finish piecing together the prototype red planet habitat structure on Thursday or Friday.

But the task is "contingent on our alternative construction plan," according to the non-profit organization, which promotes the exploration and settlement of Mars.

After four successful airdrops of construction materials and equipment to the remote island, a fifth drop failed last week and resulted in heavy damage to the habitat's floor panels.

Mars Society explorers are taking part in their first scientific mission on the island. At the same time researchers with NASA are taking part in their fourth consecutive field research session there this summer.

Agency scientists are studying the geology and biology of the island, a barren and cratered desert that is considered a leading Mars-analog environment on Earth.

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Reuters contributed to this report.

The Mars Society
NASA Haughton-Mars Project

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