MOSCOW, January 22 (AVN) - The Mir space station attitude control is being supported by rocket engines, a spokesman for the Russian Aviation and Space Agency told the Military News Agency on Monday.
The station will most likely remain in this mode until it docks with the Progress M1-5 tanker, whose launch is scheduled for Wednesday. The transport is to dock with the station at 8.30 Moscow time (0530 GMT) on Saturday.
Specialists of the Flight Control Centre say that the station's own attitude control works roughly and it would be risky to rely on it during docking with Progress.
Meanwhile, there are six cosmonauts staying on "hot stand-by". The crew will be sent to Mir in case of emergency. The main crew consists of Gennady Padalka and Nikolai Budarin. Also ready to fly are Salizhan Sharipov, Pavel Vinogradov, Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.
If everything goes according to the worked out scenario, the space station will start manoeuvring to lower its orbit in the second half of February. The station will be safely sunk in the Pacific Ocean roughly on March 6.