The Russian space and aviation agency predicts that about 1,500 pieces of the Mir space station will reach Earth after the controlled de-orbit of the 137t craft. The de-orbit, planned originally for 6 March, has been delayed to between 13 and 15 March.
The fragments will fall into the South Pacific in a corridor 200km (108nm) wide and 6,000km long. Without a perfectly controlled re-entry, the station could enter Earth's atmosphere within 52°N and S latitude with a 0.02% risk of debris coming down on a city, says the agency's director Yuri Koptev.
Meanwhile, Prof Konstantin Feoktistov, who was the science crew member of a flight in October 1964 claims that "nothing important" was achieved during the operational lifetime of Mir.
Source: Flight International