Officials say Mir likely to be dumped soon

MOSCOW - Russian officials said Thursday that the Mir space station, an aging symbol of Soviet space glory, is likely to be discarded soon for lack of money.

But officials also said no decision has been made yet, and the fate of the 14-year-old station was not even discussed at a meeting of space experts.

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, the Cabinet official responsible for the space program, reiterated what the government has said before: It cannot afford Mir.

''Therefore we believe that the station will most likely end its existence in the first half of next year,'' Klebanov said.

But he then appeared to offer some hope that Mir could stay aloft, pointing out that the station's lifetime has been extended by private investors once already.

The Russian government originally planned to dump Mir into the ocean early this year, but agreed to keep it in orbit after Netherlands-based MirCorp signed a lease agreement and helped pay for a 73-day mission to the station earlier this year.

Since then, Russian space officials have grown skeptical about MirCorp's ability to raise money. And the government has pledged to devote scarce space funds to the new International Space Station, a 16-nation project led by the United States.

''Most likely, a decision will be made to de-orbit the Mir,'' the Russian Aerospace Agency's chief spokesman, Sergei Gorbunov, said on NTV television. ''As of today, all financial and technological means of keeping it aloft have been expired.''

But a space commission that met Thursday put off a discussion of the Mir, the space agency said.

MirCorp said last week that it intends to raise $117 million in a stock offering to refurbish the station and keep it flying. Its plans include sending Santa Monica, Calif., businessman Dennis Tito as a tourist to the station early next year for $20 million.

MirCorp executives have been in Moscow for a week meeting with government officials to convince them that the Mir should remain in orbit, and the company is still planning launches, said spokesman Jeffrey Lenorovitz.

''MirCorp is still in business and extremely positive about its future,'' Lenorovitz said. ''We haven't gone down for the final count yet.''

A Progress cargo ship that is already in orbit is expected to link up to the Mir on Saturday and boost the orbit of the 143-ton station.

''The Progress will raise the Mir's orbit to keep it under control,'' Russian Aerospace Agency spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko said in a telephone interview.

''If a final decision is made to discard the Mir, we will send another cargo ship with an extra amount of fuel needed to send it down,'' he said.

Also Thursday, the space agency set Oct. 31 as the new launch date for the first permanent crew on the International Space Station, a U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts.

The launch had been set for Oct. 30 but had to be moved back one day because of the need for a slight revision in the stations flight path, Kreidenko said.

The Mir was launched in February 1986, when Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of a Soviet Union still more than five years away from collapse.