Official Expects Mir’s Demise in February

A senior Kremlin official said Russia’s aging Mir space station will probably be decommissioned in February unless private funding emerges, two news agencies reported. “We are planning to bring the Mir down into the ocean at the end of February,” Deputy Prime Minister Ilya I. Klebanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax and Itar-Tass news agencies. But Klebanov still held out some hope that private funds might save the nearly 15-year-old orbiter. “If non-budgetary funds are found, the situation may develop according to a different scenario,” Itar-Tass quoted Klebanov as saying.