I like it…I like it. Brilliant PR for taco bell. Better than that Chihauhau dog. They should put that dog on the target, too. If MIR hits the dog, free burritos!
Poor Japanese. First the US sub strikes them from below, now the Russians strike from above with space junk.
Maybe this a surprise ending Fox has for Survivors. Instead of the pacific, MIR crashes in the outback. Survive this!
Now they’re saying it will be Friday. According to one map on that page, Mir will pass over land on its way down, namely New Guinea and the northernmost part of New Zealand. It should be a VERY spectacular show for the Kiwis and Maoris. They also provide links to a couple of trackers so you can know where Mir (or nearly any other satellite) is at any time.
Russia and the U.S. were the best of friends
after the cold war days.
Both members of the space age club.
Both active in the U of N.
After Glasnost the US launched satelites. Yesy they launched them far and near.
Russia tried to stay involved, but all they had was Mir.
Wasn’t too long 'for the cargo shuttles started banging her around, and started a fire up there.
Lack of funds and high tech equiptment was bound to thwart the Russian Bear.
The U.S and Russia had the ISS. They talked man to man and they worked out a plan and it didn’t take them long to decide…
That Mir had to die!
Goooobyyyyyye, Mir!
I can’t imagine that the insurance would be more than five bucks for something like that. A forty by forty target? In an ocean? Talk about a needle in a haystack! I don’t care how much money they could end up loosing, that’s nothing compared to the odds! I’ve already taken the liberty to save the image of the target to my computer. Oh, the possibilities with photoshop!
Fishing fleet caught in Mir’s path
Boats scramble as Russia fine-tunes Friday’s fiery fall
March 22 — An international fishing fleet is caught in the
middle of the impact zone for Russia’s doomed Mir space
station, even as controllers are aiming the 138-ton of
space junk for Friday’s fiery fall. The 27 boats are
scrambling to minimize the risk of getting hit, but they
can’t move fast enough to escape the zone completely.
Planes flying over the pacific are worried about hitting MIR, too. The Russians are not making friends with this space junk.
Just got this off the AP wire service, from a series of quotes about Mir from Russian astronauts and space program personnel.
Found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAQNI1TMKC.html
Any idea what that’s all about?
I cannot even understand what that statement is trying to say. It looks to me like an excoriation of the media for speculating about the thing hitting something or someone. How that in itself is dangerous, I do not know. What, did AP pipe that quote through Babelfish or something?
Anyway, it’s pointing out that the chances of Mirlets hitting anything other than water are about as good as the chance that Catherine Zeta-Jones will walk up to me in sixty seconds, drop trow, lay across my lap, and beg me to spank her.
Wait a minute…
Shit.
Oops. That should read
“Anyway, it’s pointing worth out that the chances…”
And I’m still waiting, Catharine.
According to this CNN story, it’s supposed to crash at 1:45 AM EST, which is 10:45 PM PST. Will we be able to see this thing crash live on TV? 
That’s it! Mir is officially no more!
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/03/23/mir.descent/index.html
Will the parts be salvaged? I see a national geographic specail coming: Search for the Mir, with that ocean guy, Dave Ballard.
I wonder how much sea life was killed? I’m surprised it didn’t cause a tidal wave.
<sigh>
And no free tacos, neither…
Nuts.
I also was charmed by Mir’s chewing-gum and duct-tape no warranty existence… it matches my image of what space is like based on popular Space Operas where regardless of the state of technology, the interior of spaceships is always dingy, seedy and nothing works right.
Gleaming corridors and functioning controls are unmistakable signs of evil intentions in spaceships.
So, I made a little tribute to Mir on my web page, maybe y’all will get a kick out of it.
-fh
According to The Register, hunks of Mir were already up for auction on ebay this morning.
Unfortunately, ebay cracked down on all these guys. The three-meter hunk one guy claimed to have was up to $15,000 the last time I looked.
That is a good question as to how much sea life was killed. I probably wiped out a few fish. But a tidal wave? I don’t think so. You have to remember that there is a terminal velocity when you’re falling to earth, no matter where you started. Mir’s descent slowed down once it hit the lower, thicker atmosphere. So, the impact of this might have been the same as a couple of 757’s hitting the water (I just get the image of the climax of Air Force One at this point). In order to produce a tidal wave, it would have to be so massive that it penetrated the surface of the ocean, reached the bottom, and shook the earth below it enough reach shallow water, where the tidal wave would occur.
If that happened, it would have literally occured at the speed of sound, so all those guys watching in Fiji would’ve been fucked. And yes, no free tacos.
Damn fish huggers.
Stick to the Man with the Yellow Hat, George.