The planned farewell fall to earth of the fabled Russian space station Mir next week will be filmed and broadcast about four hours afterward over the Internet, a Los Angeles space aficionado said today.
Sponsors ranging from RadioShack to AOL and Internet auction site eBay pulled together by attorney Mr Richard Citron and his space industry businessman brother Mr Bob Citron will track the splashdown ending 15 years of circling the globe on
[ www.mirreentry.comOpens in new window ]
.
The site, which offers a countdown to the big day, currently target's Mir's latest probable deorbit date as March 22nd. The Citrons announced last month plans to charter a plane so that a small group of space enthusiasts can witness the fiery death of Mir, once the jewel in the he crown of the Soviet space program, as it hurtles into the Pacific Ocean.
The expedition will take some 120 researchers and paying members of the public 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) up into the skies south of Tahiti. Seats range from 5,000 to 10,000 depending on the view.
Website sponsors originally planned a live broadcast, but now say the aircraft which will track the spacecraft's final descent will not have enough bandwidth to stream the footage as it occurs, a spokeswoman for Citron said.
The aircraft will be trying to fly parallel to Mir as it reenters, but at a distance of 400 miles so it is out of danger from debris, the spokeswoman said.
The film will be broadcast within about two hours of the plane's landing and the landing will be about two hours after Mir's fall to earth.
The Russian spacecraft is expected to rupture in a series of explosions into hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pieces before it crashes into the Pacific Ocean.