快猫短视频

Reports that the operators of Mir have decided to ditch the ageing space station have been denied by its private partner company.

快猫短视频 reports suggested that RSC Energia recommended ditching the 14-year-old station in the Pacific in February 2001. But MirCorp, the Netherlands-based company that is raising money to run the station with Energia, rejects this.

Russia鈥檚 deputy prime minister, Ilya Klebanov, said on Tuesday that a council of space engineers at Energia had voted to bring Mir down, according to news agency reports. This decision would require approval from the Russian Space Agency and the Russian government.

But Jeffery Manber, president of MirCorp, says the reports are incorrect. 鈥淢y feeling is that it鈥檚 some miscommunication on the government side,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. He says the council voted to launch an unmanned Progress cargo ship carrying fuel to Mir on 16 October, and boost the station鈥檚 orbit.

However, Manber admits that MirCorp hasn鈥檛 yet raised the cash to safeguard Mir鈥檚 future. 鈥淚t鈥檚 taking time to secure the investment,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 come up with the money, say by the end of the year, then they would have to consider deorbiting. But I think we will come up with it.鈥�

If the funding materialises, MirCorp hopes to send space tourists to the station. These include American Dennis Tito, a former space engineer and one contestant from 鈥淒estination Mir鈥�, a planned NBC TV series in which contestants will train for the trip at the Star City cosmonaut base near Moscow.