MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Brian Flanagan
EMA Media Liaison
Mobile: 0409 489 344

The Mir Space Station splashed down in the Southern Pacific Ocean on target today at 5:00pm [06:00 UTC].

The splashdown point was at 160W 40S -- midway between New Zealand and Chile and about 5,800 kilometres east of Australia.

Australian Embassy representatives at the Mission Control Centre outside Moscow reported to Emergency Management Australia (EMA) that the final braking impulse was initiated at 4:07pm (Canberra time) [05:07 UTC].

This third braking manoeuvre followed two earlier today -- at 11:31am [00:31 UTC] and 1:02pm [02:02 UTC].

Mir maintained stability after each of the three burns and then followed the predicted track across the Pacific to the splashdown point.

Director General of Emergency Management Australia, David Templeman said that from the Australian point of view, the management of the Mir exercise had been a great team effort.

"Many hundreds of Australians in emergency management organisations and in Commonwealth and State departments and authorities joined EMA to plan and prepare for the descent of the Mir space station over the last four months.

"We had a very effective contingency plan -- which we have not had to deploy. However, a critical part of the plan was the collection and dissemination of information on the Mir de-orbiting and that part of the plan has worked extremely well."

Mr Templeman thanked the media for its accurate and positive reporting of the Mir descent. "The media has played a key role in keeping the Australian community informed of exactly what was happening to Mir," he said.

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