The Russian Space Agency says it has government funding to keep Mir in orbit until August.
"The docking went well, " Yuri Koptev, director of the Russian Space Agency, said in a television interview.
Its Astronaut Advisory Board includes Buzz Aldrin, and it has an agreement with the Russian space agency.
Initially, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, had difficulties contacting the probe at all.
FORBES: Russian Scientist Apologizes For Failed Mars Mission
In less stellar news, NASA was forced to extend its partnership with the Russian space agency Roscosmos until 2017.
That company, Space Adventures, eventually made a deal with the Russian space agency to sell trips to the space station.
One senior Russian space agency official told Russian news agency Itar-Tass that a similar joint project was started 10 years ago.
"Of course we should be prepared to use any scientific potential we have on Mir, " said Alexei Krasnov, deputy head of the Russian Space Agency's international cooperation department.
This is an impressive recovery for Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The Russian space agency, Roskosmos, has confirmed similar intentions.
The Russian space agency recently announced that US millionaire Gregory Olsen would become the next space tourist, flying to the space station either this October or in April 2005.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Astronauts may get time extension
Now the savings are turning into extra costs, and the Russian space agency is accused of (though it denies) helping the Iranians, or some such enemy, with their weapons.
But the head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Koptev, said it was discussing candidates to become the next space tourist with the owner of the Soyuz spacecrafts, Interfax reported.
The Russian space agency, pushing back Mir's demise by a week or so, said Tuesday that the spacecraft would probably meet its fiery end between March 18 and March 20.
As I said, this was an ambitious move by the Russian space agency, and I hope that they give a similar mission another try once they figure out what went wrong with this one.
FORBES: Failed Russian Probe Phobos-Grunt Will Fall To Earth This Weekend
All previous UK-born astronauts that have gone into orbit have done so either through the US space agency (Nasa) as American citizens or on private ventures organised with the assistance of the Russian space agency.
BBC: UK astronaut Tim Peake to go to International Space Station
Shuttle Endeavour, which had been docked with the Mir space station, unhooked on Thursday, about a half hour after the Russian space agency launched a Soyuz rocket with three new crew members for the space station.
On Monday Boris Bodin, head of the Russian Space Agency's long-term planning department, acknowledged that Moscow may keep Mir flying longer than earlier announced, until several months after the arrival of the living quarters module in July 1999.
However, the Russian space agency is already hard-pressed financially and although it has been given a budget increase to cover the next six months, it says it will be unable to meet its commitments next year without American help.
Moscow (CNN) -- The Russian space agency on Monday postponed the launch of a new manned mission to the International Space Station due to last week's accident in which an unmanned cargo craft was lost, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
If any further reason were required for confining Russia to the role of a paid subcontractor on the ISS, the conduct of the Russian Space Agency and its director, Yuri Koptev, and other Russian research and design institutes serving as suppliers to the ISS with respect to missile proliferation to Iran would warrant such a step.
Currently, the Administration is proposing to proceed with progress payments to the Russian Space Agency for the International Space Station, even though it cannot or, in any event, will not make the certification required by the Iran Nonproliferation Act (one of whose prominent sponsors was Senator Joseph Lieberman) that the Russian agency is not helping Iran with ballistic missile technology.
Currently, the Administration is proposing to proceed with progress payments to the Russian Space Agency for the International Space Station, even though it cannot -- or, in any event, will not -- make the certification required by the Iran Nonproliferation Act (one of whose prominent sponsors was Senator Joseph Lieberman) that the Russian agency is not helping Iran with ballistic missile technology.
They'll eventually be joined by NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fiyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, who are due to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on May 28.
They will be joined at the end of the month by three new crew members: NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fiyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, who are due to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on May 28.
On December 21, another Soyuz will launch from Kazakhstan with NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers.
This particular failure is widely believed to have contributed to the decision of the Russian government to replace the then space agency chief, Anatoly Perminov.
The European Space Agency and the Russian Institute of Biomedial Problems are scheduled to run a joint 520-day mock Mars expedition this year aimed to study the effects of extreme isolation and confinement on 12 volunteers.
CNN: Mars on the brain? Red Planet pioneers to face cosmic mind trip
Earlier this week, a senior Russian space official was quoted by a news agency as saying that delays to the schedule of US shuttle launches to the space station were resulting in extra work for Russian rocket crews without financial compensation.
The US space agency (Nasa) and the Russian academy of sciences are planning to break through the ice to sample the water for life.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Secret rivers found in Antarctic
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