Russia to dump Mir space station

MOSCOW - Russia's Cabinet decided Thursday that the space station Mir will end its 15 years of pioneering achievements and white-knuckle mishaps with a fiery plunge into the Pacific Ocean in February.

Mir's successes and tribulations mirrored the epochal changes that shook Russia during its time aloft, and ditching it in a remote corner of the sea 900 to 1,200 miles off Australia will extinguish a potent symbol for many Russians.

But Mir is deteriorating, foreign investors who bought the station an eleventh-hour reprieve this year haven't met their commitments, and Russia wants to concentrate its revenues on the 16-nation international space station, which received its first crew last month, Russian Space Agency chief Yuri Koptev said.

Koptev said it would be unsafe to leave Mir aloft without new, expensive missions to refurbish it.

''This year has already been rich with disasters,'' he said. ''We must not encourage new attacks and speculations aimed against our country.''

Russia's one-time image of technological prowess was severely tarnished this year by the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk and the fire that engulfed Moscow's TV tower, one of the world's tallest structures.

Russia also was embarrassed by the funding problems that caused it to fall years behind in launching a key module of the NASA-led international space station. But its launch this summer, followed by the station's first Russian-American crew arriving in a Russian space capsule, has restored some of Russia's pride.

For years, NASA has been urging Russia to concentrate its funds on the international project.

''Our concern has only been that the Russians have adequate resources to support their commitments to the international space station,'' NASA spokeswoman Debra Rahn said Thursday at the space agency's Washington headquarters.

''We've always said the decisions on Mir are the sole purview of the Russian government,'' she said.

When Mir was launched Feb. 20, 1986, it was the epitome of achievement for the Soviet Union, which had already launched the world's first satellite and put both the first man and first woman in orbit.

The first of a series of mishaps that were to bedevil Mir took place only a year later: the station's second module, Kvant 1, was unable to link up because of an ''alien object'' blocking the docking port. The object, later reported to be a plastic bag, was removed during an unscheduled spacewalk by the crew.

In 1991, an unmanned cargo ship lost control during its approach to Mir and nearly smashed into it. Over the next few years, the station ran smoothly even if the Soviet Union didn't. Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev got the unusual distinction of being a Soviet citizen when he blasted off in 1991 and a Russian citizen when he returned in 1992.

Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov set a space endurance record by staying aboard for 438 days in 1994-95.

But 1997 changed Mir's image to a space jalopy. An oxygen-generating canister burst into flames, nearly forcing the crew to abandon ship. A cargo ship rammed Mir, piercing one of the modules and forcing the crew to seal it off before too much air leaked out. Computers failed twice, and the station went adrift after a cosmonaut inadvertently disconnected a power plug.

In 1999, Russia said it lacked the money to keep Mir aloft and planned to ditch it over the winter. But the private, Netherlands-based MirCorp leased time on Mir and promised to pay for its operation.

While MirCorp financed a mission to Mir earlier this year, it has failed to meet other commitments, forcing the government to divert funds intended for the international station, Koptev said.

''We cannot continue this game ... which I call Russian roulette. We simply don't have the right to do that, because we are a government agency responsible for the safety of Mir,'' he said.

American businessman Dennis Tito, who had hoped to travel to Mir as a ''space tourist'' under a deal with MirCorp and has already spent $1 million in training, will not be sent to the station, Koptev said.

MirCorp representatives did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment.

The company, which said the space station had wide commercial potential, had said it aimed to raise about $120 million through a stock offering next year, but Koptev indicated Thursday's decision to bring Mir down would not be reversed even if new money appeared.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told Thursday's Cabinet meeting that safely discarding Mir is an international commitment for Russia.

A Soviet satellite crashed into northern Canada in 1978, scattering radioactive fragments over a wide area. A year later, the unoccupied U.S. Skylab space station fell to Earth when its orbit deteriorated faster than expected, scattering debris over western Australia. No one was hurt in either incident.

Koptev said an unmanned cargo ship would be sent to Mir in January and in February the cargo ship would fire its rockets to push the station quickly into the atmosphere.