Moscow — After reluctantly deciding to dump the aging Mir space station, Russian controllers chose a spot for re-entry along a swath of the South Pacific, far, far from the nearest inhabited land.
But it's not off-limits to determined tourists.
Herring Media Group, a Sausalito, Calif.,-based public relations firm, has chartered a plane for space enthusiasts and television crews to fly to the site a trip Russia's space agency director compares to a suicide jump off a bridge.
Organizers claim the flight is safe, and want to film the spectacle of burning space station debris streaking toward Earth. The 143-ton cluster will be the largest man-made object ever to enter the atmosphere.
Once the pride of the Soviet Union, Mir is scheduled to come down Thursday about halfway between Australia and Chile, according to Russia's Mission Control.
More than 50 people have paid about $6,500 each, slightly more for a window seat, to see the historic event, according to company director Marc Herring. The price includes a few nights on the Pacific Island of Fiji before and after the show, a steak barbecue to honor Herring's Texas roots, drinks on the plane and a promised "bash" once the station is down. Four Russian cosmonauts will be on board to see the fiery end of their former home.
"We'll see a bright, meteor-like object on the horizon with a smoke trail coming toward us, then a series of explosions of the pressurized vessels and a glow as the station fragments into multiple parts and rains down," Herring said.
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