MirCorp, the US-Russian private company that financed the last manned mission to Mir, said Wednesday it was hoping to offer at least six million dollars for the construction of the International Space Station.
The Amsterdam-based company, which is registered in Bermuda, wants to help develop a manned module to dock with the ISS and to be used for scientific and commercial purposes, MirCorp's spokesman Jeffrey Lenorovitz told AFP.
"It is logical that we would want to use our experience with Mir, in the ISS project," said Lenorovitz.
The spokesman added that the company was planning to continue with its space tourism project which foresees launching businessmen into space for some 20 million dollars a time.
MirCorp is also hoping to continue pursuing the NBC planned game-show "Destination Mir" to be broadcast in autumn 2001, which envisages the winner being launched onto the ageing Russian space station.
However, Lenorovitz suggested Wednesday that the ISS could become a replacement for Mir, which is due to be destroyed February 27-8.
Lenorovitz also said that it could help the Russian government to finance Soyuz and Progress launches.
MirCorp financed the last manned mission to Mir in April when Russian astronauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kalery where launched onto the space station for a two-month stay -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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