Mir splashdown postponed to Friday

The Mir space station will now be dumped on Friday, a day later than planned.

Space officials had previously set Mir's controlled descent into the South Pacific for early on Thursday.

They now say it will be postponed because the station's orbit is dropping more slowly than expected.

Mir was orbiting 142 miles above the Earth today and was expected to drift down about another two miles by tomorrow.

Mission Control wants Mir to descend to 132 miles before aligning the station for the final manoeuvre.

If everything goes according to plan, a cargo ship docked at the station will fire its engines twice during two consecutive orbits to lower the station further.

The ship will then fire one last time several hours later to send the station hurtling into the South Pacific between Australia and Chile at around 9am Moscow time on Friday.

Space officials have worked out a backup to Mir's own computer to guide its descent. In case the space station's unstable batteries make it impossible to use, the craft will be controlled by the onboard computer and separate radio communications of the Progress cargo ship.

Space officials say the 15-year station must be dumped because the government lacks the funds to fix and maintain it.

Nevertheless, many cosmonauts and politicians have pushed to extend Mir's life.

Gennady Seleznyov, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said today that he sent a letter to Vladimir Putin earlier this month, proposing to upgrade Mir into Mir-2. Seleznyov said he hadn't received Putin's reply.