The plan to ditch the Mir space station has taken a major step forward with the docking of a cargo craft, loaded with 2.7 tonnes of fuel.
This will be used to propel the station into the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere, most probably on 6 March.
The successful docking of the Progress ship came as a relief to Russian space officials, who had to delay its launch after a gyroscope failure meant they lost control of the station鈥檚 orientation.
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鈥淭his was very important moment. Now we can control the station鈥�, said Yuri Semyonov, head of the Energia company which operates Mir.
The ship docked at 1733 GMT on Saturday, the 110th craft to do so. The station was orbiting at 280 kilometres altitude, its lowest orbit since the year of its launch in 1986.
Downward spiral
Mir will be allowed to drift down to about 200 km altitude, at which point engine firings will drive it into the atmosphere. It will begin to burn up but as much as a third of the 135 tonne station is expected to reach the Earth鈥檚 surface.
Russian flight controllers intend to place the debris in an large area of the Pacific about 3,000 km east of New Zealand, but the de-orbiting of such a large craft has never before been attempted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is extremely keen to avoid any mishaps, telling officials: 鈥淚t is important to avoid not only technological problems but also negative environmental and other consequences.鈥�
An emergency crew of two cosmonauts are on stand-by to fly to the station if any further mishaps occur.