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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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