Those Crazy Russians

Mir space station - once the shining star of the Russian space program's superiority, now a sad reminder of past incompetence and cost over runs. Abandoned, constantly failing, and infested with space fungus, Mir's days have been numbered for some

Mir space station - once the shining star of the Russian space program's superiority, now a sad reminder of past incompetence and cost over runs. Abandoned, constantly failing, and infested with space fungus, Mir's days have been numbered for some time now. In little less than a month the aging station will earn a firey end as it plummets into the atmosphere to burn up on re-entry, and then sink beneath the Pacific Ocean.

Well, at least that's the plan, but Russian Space Control is only too well aware of how wrong things could go.

'Any technical equipment can fail at any time,' said one highly confident official. 'We put the risk at two and three per cent.' I can just see the nervous smile on the man's face. So check your local bomb shelters and start watching the skies from the beginning of next month - the sky might well be falling.