Mir cargo ship launch rescheduled

KOROLYOV, Russia -- A new date for has been set for the launch of an unmanned cargo ship to help bring the 15-year-old Mir station down from space for good, Russian space officials say.

Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said a government space commission decided to launch the Progress M1 cargo ship on Wednesday morning, with docking scheduled three days later on January 27.

The cargo ship had been due to be launched on Thursday but had to be delayed because of a sudden power loss which disabled the station's computer and orientation system of gyroscopes, destabilising it.

The Mir is scheduled to be brought down to Earth on March 6.

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Observers say the decision on Friday reflected Russian space experts' confidence that the problem had been overcome and that all operations aboard the Mir could be normalised.

Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian Aerospace Agency, said that ground controllers were planning to change the circuitry to bypass the faulty pieces of equipment and dead batteries.

Koptev again defended the government's decision to bring down the Mir in February, accusing those who objected of being "non-professionals" motivated by "pseudo-patriotic reasons."

"The situation is very tense and we should take into account the realities that we periodically encounter. There is nothing extraordinary in that, considering the station's age and the state of its resources."

The power failure -- the second in as many months -- led to concern that the 140-ton station could plunge to Earth uncontrolled.

But space officials quickly regained control of Mir and promised to jettison it safely in the Pacific Ocean as planned.

The Russian Government decided last year to discard the Mir and concentrate resources on the new NASA-led International Space Station, which the United States has urged for years.

The Progress M1 will dock with the Mir using automated systems, if the plan works. Using fuel from the Progress, rockets would fire and push Mir down to Earth.

In case of any problems, an emergency crew is on standby to blast off for Mir and direct the cargo ship's docking and subsequent descent.

Koptev said that the cosmonauts would have to arrive at the station before it descends to about 150 miles.

"Beyond that, we cannot guarantee the safety of the crew."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Space station mission postponed
January 18, 2001
'Controlled' Mir re-entry promised
December 27, 2000
Russia feared Mir was lost in space
December 28, 2000

Mir Space Station Observing
Russian Government
Russian Space Agency
Office of Space Flight

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