After 15 years of mishaps, Mir's fiery finale goes exactly to plan

The Russian space station Mir bowed out with a sensational display of pyrotechnics yesterday, carving a fiery path across the evening sky above Fiji before plunging into the Pacific Ocean in a shower of burning debris.

The Russian space station Mir bowed out with a sensational display of pyrotechnics yesterday, carving a fiery path across the evening sky above Fiji before plunging into the Pacific Ocean in a shower of burning debris.

South Pacific nations breathed a collective sigh of relief at the immaculately choreographed descent, which saw the remains of Mir splash down at precisely the designated spot, half way between New Zealand and Chile. Russian ground controllers at Mission Control, just outside Moscow, congratulated themselves on guiding it down far from populated land.

Mir-chasers had congregated in Fiji to witness the final moments of the 137-ton station as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, streaked overhead and hurtled to its demise. Locals had camped out on the beaches in anticipation of the cosmic fireworks. Spectators said four fragments flashed above the palm trees like white balls of fire, with a swarm of smaller debris in their wake. They illuminated the early evening sky for about eight seconds; four thunderous sonic booms followed three minutes later.

An Associated Press photographer, Rob Griffin, who watched Mir roar past, said: "It was like someone shining a spotlight in your eyes. It was really intense. It was blinding bright." Hugh Williams, a CNN correspondent, described "a collection of bright golden lights tearing across the sky".

Mir, decommissioned after 15 years, is the biggest object brought back to Earth. It crashed down at speeds of 650 to 1,000 feet per second, fast enough to smash through 6ft of reinforced concrete.

Countries on the flight path and near the splash-down area, including Australia and New Zealand, were on alert in case debris hit land. Russia had dismissed that possibility, but had still taken out $200m (£140m) of insurance with Lloyd's of London.

David Templeman, the managing director of Emergency Management Australia, estimated Mir's watery grave to be 3,600 miles off eastern Australia. "I'm relieved. It was extremely smooth," he said.

A fleet of 27 American Samoan tuna boats that had ignored warnings to leave the zone survived unscathed, according to the New Zealand Maritime Safety Authority. Tana McHale, a spokeswoman for the fleet, said: "It apparently broke apart far away from them. They didn't even get a decent light show."

Mir, a collection of cylindrical modules sprouting antennae and solar panels, had orbited the earth 86,331 times since 1986 and hosted 104 astronauts. It was the pride of the Soviet and Russian space programmes, but was costly to maintain and suffered a string of mishaps in its last five years.

The end came after Mission Control fired engines on a cargo ship docked to Mir, to break its orbit and send it towards Earth. Large portions of it were burnt up as it re-entered the atmosphere, but it scattered an estimated 25 tons of blazing fragments as it hit the surface of the Pacific at about 0600 GMT.

Mission Control said that Mir had successfully completed a "triumphant mission". Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian Aerospace agency, said: "It has been an exemplary operation."

But Western and Russian space buffs who chartered two planes to chase Mir and record its destruction on film missed the show. As Mir passed the spot where they had been staying, they were patrolling an area to the east.

The group, which included four Russian cosmonauts who served on Mir, reported glimpsing "a small dot" from one plane. Deeply disappointed, they consoled themselves with champagne as they headed back to Fiji.