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A farewell to Mir
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THE Mission Control Centre (MCC) in the town of Korolyov outside Moscow, supervising the flight of the dying Mir space station, is crowded with mass visitors wishing to eye the fiery splash show, thereby bringing about a risk of disturbing the normal control of Mir's operation.
The centre is now experiencing big troubles caused by the large number of applications by rolling-in interested visitors and media reporters, who want to be present to cover the process of the station's deorbiting and sinking, a centre official said.
By Wednesday, some 600 representatives of more than 100 Russian and foreign mass media have been accredited to enter the Mission Control Centre buildings on Friday, which was set as Mir's death day, he said.
In addition, 109 employees of the embassies of 63 countries, as well as representatives of Russian state organs, are planning to watch this historic event in Mission Control Centre today.
Moreover, curious and fun-hunting people, outstanding celebrities and other important persons are gathering there and visit various facilities every day.
Such a situation has produced negative effect on the normal work of the specialists dealing with the destruction of Mir, even interrupting the regular operation of the working shifts at the scene, he complained.
"The capacity of the balcony of the Main Mir Mission Control Hall is very limited. We cannot bear so big groups of visitors," he said.
The MCC press service has said that MCC is asking all accredited mass media to minimize the number of correspondents they send to cover the last flight of the Mir space station.
"Only two representatives of each television company and one journalist form each press edition, radio channel or photo edition will be admitted to the Mission Control halls," the official confirmed.
Russia has taken out US$200 million insurance in case the Mir space station hurtles into a city on Earth, a slim but a catastrophic threat.
The full payout may be dwarfed by the scale of any crash after Mir enters Earth's atmosphere, one expert said, but it could still wipe out such insurance business for good.
Insurance firms were nevertheless happy to take on the risk in return for a slice of the premium because of the minimal risk and relatively small payouts to date.
While the whole world is waiting, Chile on Wednesday rejected an invitation to visit the Russian control centre that will oversee the Mir space station's descent to the South Pacific and said Russia was using the ocean as a dump.
The Mir station, which started its 15-year space journey on February 20, 1986, and is about to end its orbital life today, holds pride of a forerunner place in the history of mankind's space exploration.
(SD-Agencies)
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