MOSCOW, May 26 (AFP) - Russia's long-orbiting Mir space station will most likely stay in space until February of next year, six months after the money runs out, Russia's top space official said Wednesday, quoted by ITAR-TASS. The Russian Space Agency has enough money to finance the station until August, after which it can remain in orbit unmanned, Agency Director Boris Ostrumov said at the Canaveral space center in Florida, where he will observe Thursday's launch of America's Discovery shuttle. The 13-year-old Mir, which stays in orbit to the tune of 250 million dollars a year, was originally intended to last only five years, but was granted several grace periods until scheduled for final dismantling in August. Ostorumov lamented the accident-prone station, which carries ten tons of scientific equipment, as a "treasure" that it would be "inexpedient" to discard. He said its life could be prolonged even further with additional international financing. But he admitted the impracticality of maintaining Mir in the face of the Russian space program's chronic under-financing, saying Russia would instead place priority on shared projects like the upcoming International Space Station (ISS). Thursday's launch from Cape Canaveral will take Discovery along with Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev to the ISS, currently under construction as a joint project between Russia, the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency.  