Mir’s Descent Is Postponed by a Day
Russian space officials said the Mir space station will be dumped Friday, one day later than planned, and the parliament chairman made an appeal for President Vladimir V. Putin to grant the aging station a reprieve.
Space officials had previously set Mir’s controlled descent into the South Pacific for early Thursday but said it would be postponed because the station’s orbit was dropping more slowly than expected.
Meanwhile, Gennady N. Seleznyov, chairman of the State Duma, or lower house, said he sent a letter to Putin earlier this month, proposing to upgrade Mir into Mir-2. He said he has not received a reply.
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