Mir: Rest in Pieces

This is, I hope, the last Mir story we'll be doing for a long while. Mir's dead. Controllers gave the de-orbit command at 12:08 AM EST, and it apparently came down just before 1 AM EST. Lots of stories out there, here are just a few: Space.com | AP | BBC. Remarkably, pieces of Mir are already being auctioned on Ebay. More information below.

Space.com is giving the splashdown time at 12:58 AM EST, which seems to agree with what everyone else is saying. Unless I can find a more precise time, I'll go with that.

Mir stats: first piece launched Feb. 20, 1986. Returned to Earth Mar. 23, 2001. Total orbits: 86,331 (that's a Trivial Pursuit question in the next edition, guaranteed). Longest stay: 438 days, Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, currently the record-holder for longest stay in space. Debris footprint: 120 miles by 3,600 miles, centered around 44 S latitude and 150 W longitude.

Jacek Fedorynski took a look at Guess When Mir Will Splash and drew up this nice histogram of the guesses. He also notes that the median guess for Mir's return to Mother Earth was 2001-03-19 10:11:01.

Good guesses:

• 2001-03-23 02:02:02 - looks like 'cowkiller' is our champion Mir-guesser
• 2001-03-23 04:07:33
• 2001-03-23 04:27:42
• 2001-03-23 04:37:28
• 2001-03-22 21:37:19
• 2001-03-22 21:21:21
• 2001-03-23 06:12:25

Comments

Video footage

[rleyton]

Ok, so the book might not be out yet, and i've no idea about t-shirts, but the movie is here, and lots more besides at the good old BBC.

Re:Enough with the taco's already.

[birder]

If in 25 years Mir is mentioned along with a footnote to Taco Bell... then we (as Americans) have done a great evil.

It's already going to happen. Haven't you seen Demolition Man?

If it doesn't get said...

[aidoneus]

CNN is reporting at 05:58GMT the Russian Mir Space Station has splashed into the Pacific Ocean. Full details can be found here. Personally, it was a little bittersweet to witness the end of an era. After all, Mir had spent somewhere near 3.5 billion (million million for the UKians in the audience) miles and 15 years in space. It really was a remarkable piece of technology, but Russians really should be applauded for the accuracy of the descent. From what I understand they only missed the targeted area by a few hundred miles. Maybe they had representatives from the Mars Polar Lander team... :)

re-entry pictures

[rehannan]

Space.com has some pictures of MIR's re-entry. MIR hit the water at 05:58 GMT Mar 23.

Piece of mir on e-bsy (?)

[tonyt]

here is a rather sketcthy auction for a piece of the space station:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& item=1126537064

this appeared very soon after splashdown, and by a user clearly created just to sell "mir-wreckage". could a boat really pick up pieces of mir? charred hunks of spacestation don't seem like they would be floating and easily spottable. also, this would be very easy to scam adequately, with a blowtorch and some twisted metal/plastic/fiberglass, although the experts could probably tell.

maybe someone can put up a bid, pain the slashdot logo over the char marks, and offer it as a second prize for people who didn't win the slashdot pt cruiser.

Re:Slashdot Trollers Hit Ebay....

[__aapbgd5977]

The auction is an E-Bay classic - almost as good as when people put Elian up for auction (Descripton was something like "Surplus government property for sale, small boy, age 6, can tread water...". My favorite bidder tho is: this one.
==

Re:Dangerous precedent

[andycal]

Do you have ANY clue how much power it would take to get something so big out of earth orbit. I don't have numbers but clearly the thing is several times larger than the largest objects ever tossed our of Earth Orbit. (Apollo Command Modules and Lunar Modules)

Are you suggesting that the current space budgets be hacked up even more to pay for a couple of Saturn Vs (Billions in today's dollars) to perform this task.

It would probably be cheaper to send 10 or so shuttle missions up to bring it down in pieces.. and I'll bet some of the pieces wouldn't fit in the shuttle bay.

besides, the bacteria was on the outside, which probably reaches autoclave temperatures on the way down. I doubt much could survive that.

ObStarWars

[mrBlond]

That's not a meteor, it's a space station!
--
mrBlond

So, what are you saying...

[kernel-panic]

... it didn't kill Kenny?

Very impressive, but unfortunately no free taco's

[Manhigh]

Its nice when something in the space industry goes as well as this did. Unfortunately, hopes of free taco's have gone unfullfilled. If by some off chance you havent seen the video of it over Fiji yet, check it out. http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/03/23/mir.desce nt/index.html Very cool stuff. Congratulations and condolences to everyone who helped to bring it down so successfully.

News Flash: Russian-Made Craft Crashes and Sinks

[tenzig_112]

The MIR fell to earth last night, crashing without incdent into the Pacific ocean- which is a bit of a shock for anyone still inside.

I still remember the advice my father gave me: Never get in anything Russian-made with an airlock."

Yahoo! had this pic

[NonSequor]

Here. Pretty good picture of Mir coming down in flaming chunks.

Er... Well, y'know. You can't make an omelette without um... destroying a forest. Or something.

Wonder what the next Mir story would be ?

[SirFlakey]

"Mir, after successfully entering the earth athmosphere and crashing into the ocean has resurfaced and is on a direct collision course with Tokyo (which holds a patent on catastrophic dinosaur distruction)"
--

Enough with the taco's already.

[minus23]

If in 25 years Mir is mentioned along with a footnote to Taco Bell... then we (as Americans) have done a great evil.