"The smooth deorbiting of Mir drew a mixed reaction, with some Communists in parliament calling for the ouster of the country's space chief only to hear the prime minister publicly praise space officials for engineering a trouble-free demise of Russia's manned space-exploration program. "

Editor's note: Early Friday morning I listened to the verbal descriptions from CNN's correspondent on a beach in Fiji as he watched, in obvious awe, while Mir sped overhead in its final death throes. An image began to form in my mind. Hours later, when I saw his video, the mental image was replaced with a real one - and reminded me of something I had experienced (and felt) before. Later in the day it dawned on me. It was Star Trek III and the destruction of the Enterprise I was thinking of. A venerable ship that had served well beyond its expectations - meeting its end while its former crew looked on.

Updated 02:40 AM EST/07.40 GMT: Mir re-entry video seen from Fiji (CNN)
Updated 12:58 AM EST/05.58 GMT: Mir has crashed into the Pacific Ocean
Updated 12:49 PM EST/05.49 GMT: Altitude 48 miles
Updated 12:37 PM EST/05.37 GMT: Final deorbit burn complete. Nothing can stop Mir now.
Updated 12:14 PM EST/05.14 GMT: The final deorbit burn is now underway.
Updated 11:34 PM EST/04.34 GMT: The Progress spacecraft attached to Mir has completed the first and second engine burns. Both burns were on target in terms of duration and spacecraft orientation. The next (and most important) burn is due at 12:07 AM EST/06.07 GMT. This burn will be the longest of the three and will last 1,335 seconds/22.25 minutes. Mir will begin to break up at 12:52 AM EST/06.52 GMT at an altitude of 80 km. Fragments will strike the Pacific Ocean at around 1:30 AM EST/06.30 GMT.

The image on the right was sent back from Mir after it began its series of deorbit burns.

"Russian authorities have reconfirmed that the Mir Space Station is to spashdown in the Pacific Ocean, midway between New Zealand and Chile, about 5:20 - 5:30pm (Canberra time) [06:20 - 06:30 UTC] on Friday, 23 March 2001. Mir's current altitude is 224km. It is continuing in free flight and in the past 24 hours lost 3.5km in altitude. The de-orbit of Mir will commence with a series of three controlled braking impulses after the station reaches an altitude of 220km. The entire de-orbit/re-entry process is expected to be completed in about six hours."

"Russian Space Command has delayed the re-entry of Mir by an extra day, hoping to conserve precious fuel needed to manoeuvre the space station during its final orbit."

"Taco Bell is offering a free taco to everyone in the United States if the core of the Mir space station hits a floating Taco Bell target placed in the South Pacific. Later this week, all eyes will be fixed on the sky in anticipation of the 150-ton space station's return to earth. Taco Bell has created a 40 by 40-foot target, painted with a Bell bull's-eye and bold purple letters stating: "Free Taco Here.'' The floating target will be placed in the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia in advance of Mir's descent. "

The destruction of the 15-year-old Mir space station is likely to be postponed by one day to March 23. Officials at the Russian mission control centre (TsUP) say it was now 80 per cent certain debris from the orbitter would splash down into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday next week at around 6:00 am GMT. They explained the new timing by saying Mir's altitude was falling slower than anticipated."

"The doomed Russian space station Mir will likely plunge into a watery grave on March 22, two days later than previously announced, Russian space officials said Wednesday. Splashdown in the South Pacific is now expected on March 22 at about 1:20 a.m. EST."

"While Emergency Management Australia (EMA) expressed its confidence in Russian scientists, if the station veers off course towards Australia people will have less than 30 minutes warning that Mir is heading for their backyard. Not entirely reassuringly, the media will apparently be asked to spread the word, while officials have warned curious people not to touch any smouldering lumps of space junk which they may find embedded in their lawn."

"No one knows more about dumping spacecraft in the remote Pacific than the Russians. Since 1978 they've deorbited 80 Progress spacecraft and five Salyut space stations in the same area. "Two Progress spacecraft have gone down there already this year," says Johnson. "Mir, which is attached to a Progress, will be the third."

"Thus far all reports stated that as soon as MIR would descend pass the altitude of 250 KM TsUP would administer 3 braking impulses to achieve the altitude of 215 KM from where a 4th and last impulse had to bring the complex back into the atmosphere for decay over the Pacific east of New Zealand. (Position 47 degrees South, 140 degrees West). Last week the operation plan has been changed. To economize fuel the Russians decided to postpone braking impulses and to continue the natural drag until 220 or 215 KM from where 2 short impulses will be given within a period of 6 hours. The next day a long impulse will bring the complex into the atmosphere and on the destruction trajectory."

"There are international guidelines to advise operators of the safest way to dispose of their satellites. International Treaties, under the United Nations, identify responsibility and potential liabilities associated with the operation of space vehicles. As the 'Launching State,' Russia is responsible for any impact or results of the MIR re-entry in accordance with, for example, Article VII and VIII of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies."

"Next week, the Mir space station is scheduled to be brought down. While some rue lost opportunities for further research, many others are feting the creaky old station for 15 years of unexpectedly robust research--the longest running space laboratory ever. "

"The Mir station will de-orbit as an integral body without separation into modules and separation of the Progress M1-5 vehicle from it. The cargo vehicle propulsion system will impart several braking impulses in series to the station to provide accurate generation of the trajectory of bringing to the target point. No hazard exists that the station will spontaneously divide into modules and fragments before de-orbiting. Beginning from the altitude of about 120 km, when the station with the cargo vehicle passes the upper atmosphere, as a result of increasing aerodynamic drag followed by heating of structural elements to several thousand degrees fragments will begin to separate as from an ordinary meteor body entering the Earth atmosphere at a tremendous velocity. These fragments will, in its turn, fall to smaller pieces. "

"New Zealand insurance companies will cover damage caused by Russian space junk if the re-entry of the Mir space station goes wrong."

"Space officials had previously said they would start steps to prepare for Mir's controlled descent after its orbit drops to 155 miles by the end of this week. But Deputy Mission Control chief Viktor Blagov said Wednesday that space engineers decided to let the orbiter descend to 132 miles before discarding it."

"EMA's Director General, David Templeman, today (Monday, 5 March) delivered a media briefing on EMA's role in relation to the re-entry of the Russian Mir Space Station. In attendance at Northbourne House were members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, overseas media, and local Canberra media representatives. The briefing documents have also been provided to media representatives (mainly radio) in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland."

"The aging Mir demanded an ever-growing effort to keep it aloft. In the end Yury Koptev concluded that there was no sense in keeping Mir in orbit when the cosmonauts were spending 80% of their time on repairs, while at the same time the international community was expressing concerns that Russia was being distracted from its responsibilities to the ISS. Thus, by all accounts, after 15 years of its odyssey in space, Mir has finally became a liability and will be dumped from orbit. Its service to the Russian and international space programs remains an outstanding contribution and an important lesson learned, not only for the ISS but also for future human missions beyond Earth."

"Take your space in history! Join an elite group of adventurers as they travel into the sky to secure the best possible view of Mir's fiery return to earth. While others witness this historic event from their living room sofas, you can be there, 30,000 feet up, and just 200 miles away from this once-in-a-lifetime event."

"Space officials haven't yet set an exact date for the operation. The station is expected to drift down to an orbit about 155 miles above Earth sometime between March 7 and March 12. Then space officials will take a series of steps over the course of about a week to prepare for the final push."

"We offer congratulations to you and your staff on this significant event and wish you all good health, happiness, new creative achievements and victories, which to our belief will give glory to the Russian cosmonautics!"

"On the 15th anniversary of the Mir space station cosmonauts, scientists and others called for protests Tuesday against the planned end of what was once the symbol of Russia's space glory."

"Mir's defenders in Russia say the space station has to be preserved as a symbol of national pride. But space agency chief Koptev told reporters, "Flying a space station that threatens the entire world isn't the best way to show our greatness."

"To a large extent there isn't much we can do about Mir if it hits us, apart from basically warning people not to go near it until proper authorities arrive," says Patrick Helm, chairman of New Zealand's ad hoc Satellite Re-Entry Committee."

"The MIR Station has become the first International On-orbit Laboratory. By its flight it has confirmed not only a long-duration operation capability of the composite space engineering facility, but has paved the way for development of the next generation of manned stations in the XXI century, namely the International Space Station, which project has implemented virtually all major principles tested at the MIR Station, among which are maintainability, adaptability, modular structure, crew flight safety, effective transport and maintenance system."

"Four senior Mir Cosmonauts, one of the preeminent designers of the Mir Space Station, and a noted Russian space journalist and historian will be joining MirReentry.com, a private American airborne expedition to witness Mir's spectacular plunge through the Earth's atmosphere between March 13-18. "

"A spokesman for space agency Rosaviakosmos said data from the 15-year-old station showed it was likely to plunge into the Pacific Ocean between March 13 and 18, rather than March 5 and 8 as originally calculated."

"In mid-March, a few dozen lucky people will bear witness to a spectacular pyrotechnic display as Russia's legendary Mir Space Station re-enters the Earth's atmosphere in the remote South Pacific seas. A small group of space exploration professionals and enthusiasts are organizing the expedition on a specially chartered and equipped jet to provide an ideal aerial vantage point for watching and scientifically analyzing Mir's luminous retirement."

"According to reports by the ITAR-TASS news agency, about 200 people recently rallied outside Moscow's city hall to protest against Mir's impending destruction. "

"A small group of space enthusiasts plans to charter an aircraft to witness up close the event of a lifetime -- the fiery death next month of the Russian Mir space station as it hurtles into the South Pacific. The expedition, thought to be the only one of its kind in the world, will take some 120 researchers and paying members of the public 30,000 feet up into the skies south of Tahiti."

"Yuri Koptev: .... I just want to remind you that in the history of our cosmonautics we had a bad experience when the Russian satellite with nuclear power unit fell on the territory of Canada. It caused a great scandal all over the world. We had to pay an indemnity in the amount of 6,5 million US dollars. In so doing, we got off cheap, to put it mildly."

"We've all taken our turns being wrong about Mir, but in honor of its final demise, we should try one last time -- while it still lives -- to recognize it for what it is, for what it has done and for what it all means. Many ''lessons'' have been derived from Mir experiences, many of them priceless, a lot of them wrong and a few of them potentially dangerous. "

"Ground controllers have been unable to restart the gyroscopes that align the Mir space station, but space officials insisted Monday that the problem wouldn't affect an upcoming docking with a cargo ship intended to push the orbiter down for good."

"The last Progress spacecraft to travel to Mir is being readied once again for launch. Power problems aboard Mir forced a delay until 24 January 2001. Once launched, the mission of the Progress spacecraft is to bring the aging space station back to Earth and crash it into the Pacific Ocean. Much of Mir's 130+ ton structure is expected to survive reentry. As such, Earth's oldest space station will then take on a new life - as an artificial coral reef."

"Russia's Space Agency, creators of the 14 year old Mir, announced today its plans to replace the soon to be destroyed station with a new one, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported."

"Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has signed a resolution ordering that the aged Mir space station be taken out of orbit and sunk into the ocean early this year, the Russian space agency said Friday. "

"Russia has postponed by 48 hours the launch of the supply vessel Progress which is to set the doomed space station Mir on its path for a crashdown into the Pacific ocean, space agency officials told AFP Thursday. The Progress would now be launched from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan, on January 18, the two-day delay to the original schedule being due to "technical reasons," the officials said."

"Russia will use an unmanned cargo spacecraft to safely drop the aging Mir into the Pacific in February, a top space official said Wednesday, seeking to allay fears the space station will make an uncontrolled plunge that could rain tons of flaming debris on populated areas."

"Dalia de Palazzo was at home, ironing, when, about one o'clock on a February morning in 1991, she heard a horrific bang. Glowing in a crater in the patio of her home, 300 kilometres north-west of Buenos Aires, she found a "washing machine-sized" piece of what had been the Soviet Union's abandoned Salyut 7 space station."

"Russian space managers have changed the makeup of a two-man cosmonaut crew on standby for a flight to the abandoned Mir space station in the event of any future emergency that might cause an uncontrolled re-entry."

"Contact with the unmanned Russian Mir space station was briefly lost early today after a computer in the lab's motion control system allowed the station to drift out of its normal orientation, depleting on-board batteries."

"This morning, Russian Aviation and Space Agency hosted a meeting of Transnational Committee on mission support and operation of MIR space station. Taking into account the fact that MIR space station is in a fully operational condition, the Committee has confirmed that its operation can be further extended."

"After decades of concealing the problem, the Russian space agency, Rosaviakosmos, has conceded the regular jettisoning of sections of rocket engine on this region of Siberia and up to 20 other areas in Russia may have a harmful effect on the local population and has agreed to fund preliminary research."

"Russia's State Duma lower house of parliament criticized government plans Friday to discard the aging Mir space station early next year. Deputies overwhelmingly supported a motion condemning the ''premature end to operations aboard the Mir orbital station, and ditching it is a poorly thought out and unjustified step.''"