Russia's Space Agency, creators of the 14-year-old Mir, announced Wednesday it plans to replace the soon-to-be-destroyed station with a new one, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Unfazed by lack of financing or Mir's hazard-ridden history, the Space Agency's president Yuri Semyonov said the new station, or rather "a free module", would be constructed in a couple of years.
The module, designed for purely commercial purposes such as tourism, would be able to both drift in space and dock with the Russian section of the International Space Station, Semyonov said.
The MirCorp company, which is Mir's commercial manager, would pay for the project.
Russia has decided to destroy the ailing Mir because of a lack in funds for its upkeep, and space officials have since expressed concerns that Russia's other space programs might be woefully underfinanced.
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