A senior Russian space official ruled out a stay of execution Monday on the aging Mir space station, which the government says will be destroyed early next year.
"Time has run out, it's too late" to save the pioneering orbiter, Yury Semyonov, head of the Energiya corporation which operates the 14-year-old station, told AFP.
Semyonov chairs the board of MirCorp, a consortium set up with an investor capital group to find private sector funds to keep Mir afloat.
A week ago, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said Mir would be destroyed in late February 2001, although some MirCorp executives still hope President Vladimir Putin will grant a reprieve.
"It is dangerous and not financially beneficial to keep operating Mir," Yury Koptev, head of Russia's space agency, told Interfax.
"If the money had been found in the spring, we could have done something, but even if the money was found now we would not be technically able to keep Mir" in orbit, added Valery Grin, the deputy head of Russia's strategic missile force.
Grin is in charge of a state commission tasked with overseeing flights to Mir.
Last Thursday, Klebanov said the government had set aside 750 million rubles (27 million dollars) to decommission Mir.
The craft will be taken out of orbit at the start of a controlled descent into the Earth's atmosphere, causing much of the 130-tonne vessel to burn up on re-entry. The remainder will plunge into the Pacific Ocean -- BAIKONUR (AFP)
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