Oops. Looks like they aren't even going to spend the few million they'd
need to bring it down safely, let alone the hundreds of millions to save
it:
"``At present, there are no funds, not only for continuing the manned
flight on the orbital station Mir, but also for carrying out its guided
descent into a designated area of the ocean,'' top Russian space experts
in charge of the Mir said in a statement Tuesday."
Or maybe it's just a stunt to screw more money out of Western taxpayers to
keep Mir going...
See: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/science/story.html?s=v/ap/19990602/sc/russia_mir_2.html