MIR ORBITER TO BE DUMPED SOMEWHERE ON MARCH 10








KOROLEV /MOSCOW REGION/, March 1. /RIA Novosti's correspondent Eduard Puzyrev/. The Russian space station Mir will be dumped in the ocean approximately on March 10, according to preliminary calculations, said the Russian Mission Control Center on Thursday. To start the dumping process the Mir orbit has to be lowered to 250 kilometers, said the Control Center. Now it is 267 kilometers. 


	Mir's performance is monitored 24 hours a day. Its  central on-board computer is operating OK and maintaining the interior temperature at between 22 and 24 degrees Centigrade, its modules are pressurised as before. 


	On Friday the 130-tonne orbital station will complete its 86,000th revolution around the earth, setting the absolute record of a man-made celestial body. Mir has already been in orbit for 15 years and 10 days.