Although the Russian Space Agency has said it intends to send three more crews to Mir before deorbiting the outpost, NASA shuttle-Mir program manager Jim Van Laak said probably only two more Russian crews will be assigned to the station.

NASA's direct involvement with Mir ended last month with the return of astronaut Andrew Thomas, the seventh and final U.S. crewmember to serve on the Russian outpost. However, the agency is keeping a close watch on how Russian space officials are managing their limited resources to make sure support for Mir does not come at the expense of Russian commitments for the planned International Space Station.

Van Laak said for a while NASA toyed with the idea of additional shuttle flights to Mir, but because of technical constraints, there is little the shuttle could do to assist with the station's deorbit.

He said: "There's no credible plan at this time for another shuttle visit to the Mir. That's not to say that an emergency situation might not cause us to want to do that. But fundamentally, from the point of view of what we could contribute to a deorbit scenario, there's not a whole lot to offer."

-- Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All rights reserved. --

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