Gennady Srekalov, another Mir veteran, believes that inhabiting the station for as long as possible would be the key to its successful further operation.

"It can easily fly for another five years if it has crews on board," he told SPACE.com. According to Serebrov, however, finances will determine Mirs future fate. "It will all depend on whether MirCorp could raise enough money to support its operation. To keep Mir in orbit requires significantly less money than to build and operate ISS," said Serebrov.

"Like a car, the station has worn out during its operation," said Elena Kondakova, the first woman to make a long-term spaceflight in Mir and an employee of RKK Energia. "However, the 14 years of operation proved that the station is in a very good working condition. This was especially noticeable before the beginning of its recent unmanned flight. I hope that the station will still serve us for a number of years. One of the tasks of the crew is to replace blocks and units which have run [to the end of] their operational lifetime. Nobody knows how long will the station fly, but lets hope that it will last at least for another few years."

"The main goal which needs to be achieved by engineers and cosmonauts, is to operate the station until it is 15 years old," said Alexander Poleshchuk, another Mir veteran working for RKK Energia. "Mir could fly more, but it will depend on how much money will be allocated to its operation. It will be difficult to financially support both Mir and ISS. As about [the] technical side of the problem, all Russian enterprises and organizations which are involved in Mir operations and ISS construction will have no problem[coping] with the two stations. Money is the issue. All the cosmonauts would like to have two space stations. Mir is our home, we love it, and it is 100 percent our station. So, we would like to keep it in orbit as long as possible."

Mir Flight Data

The Soyuz launch vehicle carrying mission commander Sergey Zaletin and flight engineer Alexander Kalery to Mir was successfully launched April 4 at 1:21 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (05:21 GMT; 9:21 a.m. Moscow Time). All times below in Moscow Time: