Beginning of the end for Mir

Mir has spent 15 years in space

MOSCOW, Russia -- A Russian cargo ship has been launched for the final rendezvous with the Mir space station before its scheduled demise on March 6.

The unmanned Progress M1-5 cargo ship, carrying twice the usual amount of fuel, was launched at 7:28 a.m. local time (0428 GMT) on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan.

Vera Medvedkova, a spokeswoman for the mission control, said the rocket entered orbit 12 minutes after take off.

The ship, which will contribute to the Mir's re-entry -- and planned burn-up -- in the Earth's atmosphere -- is scheduled to dock with the station on Saturday, Medvedkova said.

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Cult 3-D Models of Mir and Soyuz
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Human spaceflight

The extra fuel carried by the Progress will be used to fire Mir's thrusters and push the 140-ton station down toward Earth for discarding in a remote area in the Pacific Ocean.

The Progress' launch was originally scheduled last Thursday but was delayed after a series of faults on Mir.

First, a sudden power loss disabled its central computer, then its gyroscopes failed.

Mission Control quickly fixed the computer problem, but has failed to switch on the gyroscopes, the preferred, fuel-free way of aligning the station. Instead, the station is being kept stable using several dozen small thrusters.

The incidents were the latest in a string of mishaps to beset the 15-year-old station and raise concerns about its safety, not least a fire and a near fatal collision with an unmanned cargo ship in 1997.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mir cargo ship launch rescheduled
January 19, 2001
'Controlled' Mir re-entry promised
December 27, 2000
Pacific ditching for Mir in February
November 16, 2000
Future of Mir in doubt after cosmonauts return home
June 16, 2000

Mir Space Station
Mir Interactive Display
Russian Space Industry
Russian Space Agency
NASA

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