MIR ORBITAL STATION TO BE SCUTTLED IN OCEAN ON MARCH 15 THROUGH 20








MOSCOW, MARCH 6. /RIA NOVOSTI'S CORRESPONDENT EDUARD PUZYREV/ -- The Mir orbiter will be scuttled in the ocean between March 15 through 20, said Leonid Gorshkov on Tuesday. He is a co-designer of Mir and a leading specialist of the RKK Energia space rocketry corporation. He appeared at a press conference in Moscow before going to the Pacific area where Mir will be dumped. 


	Gorshkov said that "the first deorbiting impulse will be given the space station when its altitude is 215 kilometers". This will happen somewhere between March 16 and 20. 


	Simultaneously, the Energia leading specialist stressed that this may happen also on March 15, when the solar activity is at its highest. Gorshkov recalled that solar activity has an influence on the speed of falling from the orbit. 


	Now Mir's altitude is slightly below 260 kilometers, loosing 1.4 kilometers daily. 


	On March 9 Leonid Gorshkov together with a group of specialists and Russian cosmonauts will fly to Japan and then the Fiji islands. From there by a special American flight they will arrive at the Mir splashdown tomb. Russian specialists have been invited to observe the Mir scuttling scene from the aeroplane. (nov/kaf)