MOSCOW (Reuter) - Russia`s troubled Mir space station is gearing up for a planned docking with the U.S. Shuttle Atlantis later this week as Russian space officialsexpect a go-ahead from NASA, Mission Control said on Thursday. NASA kept up suspense on its future involvement with Mir by delaying a decision on whether to send astronaut David Wolf into orbit to replace British-born physicist Michael Foale. The final announcement was due at 1300 GMT, but CNN reported late on Wednesday that Wolf`s mission would go ahead. In addition to the safety issue, raised by the U.S. congress, NASA is weighing two other factors in deciding whether the risks are worth the potential benefits: impact on bilateral relations and the effect on the space shuttle`s missions. Work aboard Mir is seen as essential not only for the science performed at the world`s only and longest-living space laboratory but for the necessary problem-solving and teamwork involved in occupying a spacecraft for long periods of time. The Russians had analysed previous malfunctions, especially computer crashes, on Mir and worked out measures to fix such mishaps urgently during and after the docking. On Monday Mir`s computer failed for the third time this month, sending the ship spinning in space. The three-man crew fixed it within a day, and Atlantis is due to deliver a brand new computer. Mir collided with a resupply ship on June 25, causing a major loss of power and forcing the crew to seal off a module. Since then, it has performed a shaky highwire act in space. Yuri Skursky, deputy head of Mission Control`s analytical group, said on Wednesday the ship was "completely safe" for a new astronaut. Meanwhile, the three men aboard have changed their Moscow-time-based daily schedule to adjust it with the time-table of the Atlantis crew, due to blast off from Florida. After they wake up they will start preparing Mir`s Global Positioning System (GPS), needed for the docking. The same electronic guidance system is installed on Atlantis. The shuttle is due to blast off on Thursday night local time from Cape Canaveral in Florida (0234 GMT Friday) and to dock with Mir on Saturday. Russia wants to keep the 11-year old Mir in orbit until a first crew is living in the new international space station Alpha in January 1999. But it is not clear they can do it without financial support from the United States.