Cosmonauts Try To Save Mir
Mir may have run out of luck some time ago. Now, it has run out of money. CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports.
For years, the Russians have milked the space station for extra cash to keep it in orbit.
They rented out Mir and its crew for television ads. A Japanese TV station paid $12 million for an exclusive from space. But now, the Russian government has cut Mir's budget to the zero. They plan to abandon the space station in August and let it fall back to earth sometime next year.
A fund-raising effort to save Russia's Mir space station from being abandoned began slowly Tuesday, with the first donations yielding the humble equivalent of $80.
Cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastyanov, president of the Mir Preservation Fund, said the equivalent of $50 million is needed to keep Mir in orbit for one more year. Official estimates put the figure between $200 million and $250 million.
The cash-strapped government said it would only pay for Mir to operate through the summer, and space officials decided earlier this month that Mir's last crew would depart in August.
If no new money is found by February or March, ground controllers will send the 130-ton station to burn up in the atmosphere.
The former cosmonauts started the fund, and are asking ordinary Russians to pitch in whatever they can. It is a patriotic appeal. While Mir's recent history may be full of mishaps and accidents, for many Russians it is a symbol of the country's once-proud space program.
But there is not much loose change jangling in Russian pockets these days. More than a third of the country is living in poverty.
The fund's organizers hope their effort will persuade the government to reconsider its decision. They also said they would continue trying to lure foreign investors, although all previous attempts have failed.
Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin - now deputy head of the RKK Energia company, which built and has been running the 13-year -ld Mir - blamed the United States for scaring foreign investors away.
"We had one prospective investor last year, but they pounced on him so hard that he had to drop the idea," Ryumin said at a news conference Tuesday. "It's Americans' dearest dream to get rid of the Mir."
NASA has long been urging Russia to abandon the Mir and concentrate its meager resources on the new international space station. Because of Russia's failure to build its key segment on time, the first permanent crew isn't expected to move into the international station until next March, almost two years behind schedule.
Many Russian space officials defend Mir as the last symbol of their country's space glory. They also express fears that without a space station of its own, Russia will be left playing a secondary role in the new project.
"You don't throw old shoes out until you buy a new pair" Ryumin said. "It's pointless to talk about discarding the Mir until the new station becomes operational."