Mir has Niue on alert

ALOFI, Niue (PINA Nius) — Niue’s Disaster Committee is developing an action plan to implement in case debris from the Mir space craft falls on the 265 square kilometer (106 square mile) island, which is near Mir’s trajectory path.

Police chief John Satini Tohovaka told TV Niue that the island’s 1,700 residents will be kept informed of the spacecraft’s reentry progress.

The space station is now at the end of its life and heading for a crash landing in the South Pacific on Thursday

With each orbit, Mir moves a few kilometers closer to the Earth. Its rate of approach will gradually increase as it gets closer to the earth’s surface.

Astronomers say the crash site will be approximately half way between New Zealand and Chile, and well clear of usual shipping routes.

Most of Mir is expected to burn up while traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere.

A spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center said debris from the 15-year-old craft will splash down at about eight-hours UTC on March 22.

Russian officials have rejected concerns from several island countries, saying the chances of the debris hitting them are minimal.

Splashdown could be delayed

MOSCOW, Russia (PIR) — The destruction of the 15-year-old Mir space station is likely to be postponed by one day.

Officials at the Russian Mission Control Center said that it was now 80 percent certain that debris from the orbiter would splash down into the Pacific Ocean on March 23.

They said that Mir’s altitude was falling slower than anticipated.

The final descent is due to be triggered once it reaches 220 kilometers (132 miles).

On Thursday, space officials had announced that the operation to ditch Mir would take place on March 22.

Russian mission control is to direct a rocket engine to fire three short bursts, causing the station to tilt and re-enter the atmosphere.

Mir would then burn up and debris would rain down on the South Pacific.