WORLD : Soviet Spacecraft to Lose Orbit
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MOSCOW — A Soviet spacecraft tumbling out of control will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere within a few weeks but should burn up and pose little threat to anyone on the ground, an official of Glavkosmos space agency said today.
He said the Salyut 7 space station is likely to re-enter in late January or early February. Its trajectory was impossible to predict for the moment.
Salyut-7, precursor of the current Mir space station, was launched in 1982 and original plans called for it to remain in space until at least 1998.
The craft was moved to a more remote orbit in 1986 after it failed to respond to commands from Earth and was replaced by the Mir, which is now almost permanently manned by a crew of two.
The Glavkosmos official said the spacecraft’s fall was caused by unexpectedly high solar activity in 1990, which had slowed its orbiting speed.
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