Deorbit of Mir
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UTC) | |
Duration | 5 hours and 27 minutes |
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Coordinates | 40°S 160°W / 40°S 160°W |
Type | Controlled atmospheric entry |
Target | Mir |
Organised by | Roscosmos |
Outcome | Mir burned up in the atmosphere |
Footage | Atmospheric entry |
The Russian space station Mir ended its mission on 23 March 2001, when it was brought out of its orbit, entered the atmosphere and was destroyed. Major components ranged from about 5 to 15 years in age, and included the Mir Core Module, Kvant-1, Kvant-2, Kristall, Spektr, Priroda, and Docking Module. Although Russia was optimistic about Mir's future, the country's commitments to the International Space Station programme left no funding to support Mir.[1]
The deorbit was carried out in three stages. The first stage was waiting for atmospheric
Background
After the construction of the International Space Station began in 1998, Russian resources were split between the two stations.
In November 2000, Roscosmos decided to deorbit Mir,[7] and the next month Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed an order to do so.[8] By this stage Mir was well past the end of its design life,[9] and Roscosmos General Director Yuri Koptev believed that "any of its systems could well fail at any time".[7] Therefore, it was decided to deorbit it while it was still functioning rather than risk it falling back to Earth out of control, like Skylab in 1979[10] and Salyut 7 in 1991, potentially dropping debris over a populated area.[3]
Process
External videos | |
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An animation showing the deorbiting process. |
The Mir Deorbit Monitoring Group, whose members were located in the
Two out of three Progress M1-5 propulsion firings, at approximately 90 minute intervals, were used to bring the
An official statement announced that Mir "ceased to exist" at 05:59:24 GMT. The final tracking of Mir was conducted by a United States Army site on Kwajalein Atoll.[13] The European Space Agency, German Federal Ministry of Defence and NASA also assisted with tracking Mir during its final orbit and reentry.[14][15]
Debris
At the time, Mir was the largest spacecraft ever to reenter the Earth's atmosphere, and there were concerns that sizeable pieces of debris, particularly from the docking assemblies,
References
- ^ "Mir Destroyed in Fiery Descent". CNN. 22 March 2001. Archived from the original on 21 November 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85233-657-8. Archivedfrom the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ a b c Isachenkov, Vladimir (15 November 2000). "Russian Space Chief: Government Must Make Sure Mir Doesn't Crash". Space.com. Archived from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
- ^ Canizares, Alex (16 November 2000). "Russia's decision to abandon the Mir space station was welcome news in Washington". Space.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
- ^ MirCorp (17 February 2000). "MirCorp Signs Agreement with Russia's RSC Energia For Commercial Lease of the Mir Manned Space Station". SpaceRef. Archived from the original on 3 August 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
- ^ Wade, Mark. "Mir EO-28". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2009.[self-published source]
- ^ a b "Mir space station to be brought down to Earth in February". Space.com. 17 November 2000. Archived from the original on 1 October 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
- ^ "Mir's 15 Years". NASA. 4 April 2004. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- ^ Portree, David S. F. (March 1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage" (PDF). NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
- ^ Zak, Anatoly (2 June 2000). "Dangerous space reentries of spacecraft". Space.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
- ^ "Main dynamic operations during final phase of Mir de-orbit". ESA Multimedia. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f "Mir Re-entry". Zarya. Archived from the original on 18 September 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010.[self-published source]
- ^ "The Final Days of Mir". Reentry News. The Aerospace Corporation. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
- ^ "Honourable discharge for Mir space station". ESA. 5 March 2001. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- Bibcode:2002ESASP.498...41P.
- ISBN 0-7923-0091-2. Archivedfrom the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ a b c "Japan warns about falling Mir debris". BBC News. 20 March 2001. Archived from the original on 21 July 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2010.