MOSCOW -- Russian space officials have postponed the deorbiting of the Mir space station by 24 hours to Friday. The decision to delay the reentry was caused by lower than expected descent rate of the station in the upper atmosphere.

According to the latest schedule, the maneuvers to deorbit the station will start in early hours of Friday (Moscow Time).

As of Monday, Mir circled the Earth at the altitude of 227.9 kilometers after descending 3 kilometers in the previous day.