By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer
 MOSCOW
(AP)--Russia will use an unmanned cargo spacecraft to safely drop
the aging Mir into the Pacific in February, a top space official
said Wednesday, seeking to allay fears the space station will
make an uncontrolled plunge that could rain tons of flaming debris
on populated areas.
Russian Aerospace
Agency chief Yuri Koptev angrily dismissed Communist demands to
keep the nearly 15-year-old station in orbit, saying that a 20-hour
loss of radio contact with Mir this week was a final warning that
time was up.
``The latest
events have shown where frivolous and emotional approaches can
lead us,'' Koptev said. ``We must control events, not sit and
pray for good luck.''
Space officials
lost contact with the unmanned station on Monday evening and regained
it, after frantic efforts, on Tuesday afternoon. They blamed the
mishap on a sudden and still unexplained power loss.
Koptev said
the incident highlighted the wear and tear on the station. ``Russia
mustn't allow such risks because of its obligations before the
international community, and this is why the president and the
government have decided to discard Mir in February,'' Koptev said.
Russia's Cabinet
decided in November that Mir would come down in February. Officials
say it will be aimed into the Pacific Ocean, 900 to 1,200 miles
east of Australia on Feb. 27-28.
Next month,
a Progress cargo ship carrying twice the usual amount of fuel
would be sent to the station to push it down. If that doesn't
work, an emergency crew would be ready to blast off within 12
hours to guide the descent, Koptev said. He said the Cabinet would
issue a formal order approving the plan within days.
The government's
decision has drawn criticism from Communists and others lamenting
the loss of the last remaining symbol of Soviet space glory.
Cosmonaut
Svetlana Savitskaya, now a Communist lawmaker, said in an interview
with Echo of Moscow radio Wednesday that the move was a concession
to NASA, which has urged Russia to dump Mir and concentrate its
scarce funds on the new, 16-nation International Space Station.
Koptev shrugged
off Savitskaya's comments. ``If Mir spins out of control tomorrow,
the president and the government will have to face the entire
world and explain where it would fall and what damage it would
inflict,'' he said.
In an uncontrolled
plunge, fragments of the 140-ton station could survive a fiery
re-entry and land in inhabited areas instead of the ocean. Mission
Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday some chunks could
weigh more than 1,500 pounds.
Space officials
recalled the embarrassment caused by a Soviet satellite that crashed
in northern Canada in 1978. Nobody was hurt, but radioactive fragments
were scattered over the wilderness.
And in 1991,
fragments of the Soviet Salyut-7 space station fell on the Andes
Mountains region of Argentina, inflicting no damage but generating
fears worldwide.
The unoccupied
U.S. Skylab space station fell to Earth in 1979 when its orbit
deteriorated faster than anticipated, creating sonic booms and
spreading debris over western Australia. No one was hurt.
Mir has survived
several accidents, including a fire and a near-fatal collision
with an unmanned cargo ship in 1997. Its latest crews have spent
much of their time trying to fix problems.
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