Backers of Russia's Mir Say Systems Still Go





By Karl Emerick Hanuska



MOSCOW (Reuters) - Despite ominous warnings from Moscow that their tourist

space attraction may soon crash to Earth, Western investors who want to

launch James Cameron to space station Mir say all systems are still go.



The director of the film ``Titanic,'' who has said he is prepared to buy a

ticket to space to fulfil a lifelong dream, is only one of the customers who

will be disappointed if Russia allows its aging Mir orbiter to turn into a

fireball.



Another is America's NBC television, which has announced plans to blast a

winning game show contestant into orbit during the 2000-2001 TV season as

part of a true-life show dreamed up by the producer of the mega-hit

``Survivor.''



But Wednesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin said Moscow had to

focus its meager space budget on the International Space Station (news - web

sites) and stop spending money on Mir.



``One rouble invested in the International Space Station (ISS) gives us more

in terms of scientific research than a rouble invested in Mir,'' he told a

news conference. ``We have to pay more attention to the station which has

better prospects.''



The ISS is being constructed by a 17-nation consortium led NASA (news - web

sites) of the United States and including Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and

member countries of the European Space Agency.



Kudrin's comments came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said a

committee of designers had recommended ditching Mir because it had outlived

its effective lifespan.



BLACK HOLE?



Mir's demise would blast a big black hole into MirCorp, a joint venture led

by Western investors who bought the rights to sell tickets to the public to

fly to the Russian station.



The company said it was unfazed by the comments.



``The long-term business prospects for Mir are extremely positive,'' it said

in a statement.



Jeff Lenorovitz, a MirCorp spokesman in Washington, said Russia had no need

to choose between Mir and the International Space Station, since MirCorp was

already paying Mir's bills.



He said the company had already raised $40 million to keep Mir aloft, paying

for two space flight since February. He added that MirCorp got the go ahead

this week to launch a third space flight on October 16 to send up more

supplies.



``MirCorp is pulling together investors to cover the cost of operations into

next year. In the next week or two, we will be meeting with the Russian

government people to make sure they understand that,'' he said.



The company plans to charge about $20 million to space tourists -- it calls

them ``citizen explorers'' -- for a week-long trip. One American millionaire

space buff is already training at the Star City base near Moscow.



Wear And Tear





Mir has been in orbit for more than 14 years, nearly three times what Soviet

designers planned for it. It has lately suffered some embarrassing glitches,

including a fire and a crash with a supply ship while U.S. NASA astronauts

were aboard.



But MirCorp still touts Russia's space program's safety record, saying it has

had no fatalities in more than 25 years.



Klebanov said the committee's recommendation to ditch Mir was made several

days ago, but the national space authority had yet to make a final decision.



Moscow has already dropped an earlier decision to scrap Mir.



Energiya, the Russian company which runs Mir and owns part of MirCorp, said

Wednesday the station could stay up a few more years, but needed government

cash.



Itar-Tass news agency quoted Energiya officials as saying that unless the

government found money for Mir, it risked causing ``a calamity that would be

impossible to counteract.''



Mir's ``uncontrollable crash to Earth would have unpredictable catastrophic

results,'' they warned.



Mir has given the Russians by far the world's deepest experience in

long-duration manned space flight, expertise that is being used in the $60

billion International Space Station.



In July, Russia launched the ISS living quarters -- basically an updated Mir.

But its launch was two years late, and Washington blamed the delay on Russian

reluctance to scrap Mir.





************************************************