LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Russian officials are assuring the world today that the aging and unmanned Mir Space Station is not about to crash. Welcome news, considering that it seemed for a while today as though Mir had disappeared. CNN's Jill Dougherty reports from Moscow.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For nearly 20 hours, Russian ground control tried, and failed, to contact the Mir Space Station. Something had gone wrong with the high-frequency radio communication on the aging spacecraft. This time, no cosmonauts were aboard. The Mir is on autopilot, scheduled to be destroyed at the end of February, most of it burning up in the atmosphere; the rest falling safely into the Pacific Ocean. But the broken radio contact raised the specter of an uncontrolled descent, a potential threat to people on Earth. Radio contact was eventually restored and the Mir's flight director downplayed any danger.</s>VLADIMIR SOLOVYEV, MIR FLIGHT DIRECTOR (through translator): The Mir Station is not going to fall. It's not going to fall tomorrow or on New Year's Eve. It's orbiting high over the Earth, and I suppose that we'll come up with plans -- actually, we already have a plan -- to bring the station down in an organized and civilized way.</s>DOUGHERTY: Sources close to the Russian space program say the break in communication was caused by a power problem. They believe a faulty command, human error or a technical glitch was issued, which turned the Mir's solar panels out of proper alignment. That drained the batteries and the power shut down. Those sources say it was a one-time fluke and that power and radio contact have been restored. But Russian space officials aren't sure they're out of the woods yet. (on camera): Over the next three days, they'll be checking out communications to make sure it's reliable, and they're not yet ruling out sending a manned crew to Mir to make sure it falls where it's supposed to, when it's supposed to. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.
Russian Officials Assure World That Space Station Mir Will Not Crash