Russia takes out £140m Mir crash insurance

Russia has taken out £140m in insurance cover for possible damages when the Mir space station is dumped in the South Pacific this month.

The 15-year-old Mir, once the crowning achievement of the Russian space programme, has deteriorated in recent years and is to be taken out of orbit on March 20 - crashing into the Pacific around midway between Australia and Chile.

Much of the 150-ton station is expected to burn up from atmospheric friction, but officials estimate that some 1,500 fragments weighing a total of up to 27 tons could reach the Earth's surface.

Although Russia has extensive experience of dumping spacecraft in the ocean, the prospect of the huge station's plunge has unsettled many. Japan has been especially concerned because Mir is expected to pass over its territory on its final, low orbit.

The Interfax news agency quotes Russian Aerospace Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov as saying that the agency has reached agreement with three Russian insurance companies about providing cover.

Interfax says the insurance premiums cost the cash-strapped space programme between 0.3% and 0.7% of the insured amount.

Meanwhile, Russian scientist Natalya Novikova, of the Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, has dismissed fears that micro-organisms could have mutated while aboard Mir.

She says samples including bacteria and fungi have been brought from the space station to Earth several times for examination, and the dumping of the craft poses no microbiological problems.

Mir is being allowed to drift down from its normal orbit of about 250 miles to about 135 miles, at which point a cargo ship attached to the station will fire its engines to push the space station into its final plunge.

As of tonight, Mir had descended to an altitude of 153 miles, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Mission Control as saying.