than monitoring space.

Chiefs at the Cooper's Island tracking station, preparing to shut down on March 31, have already sold $33 million worth of hi-tech equipment to the US Air Force.

Now they are ready to prepare a giant auction to sell off the rest of their computers to the highest bidders.

Station manager Bill Way said the closing down sale would probably be held in May, long after Mission Control has cleared the Bermuda base.

And he said eight containers of hardware had already been shipped back to the US, as a 13-strong clean-up crew packs up equipment for Air Force and NASA bases.

"The last one went off yesterday,'' Mr. Way said last night. "There are many locations that want this equipment. But anything left will be auctioned to the general public and that sale will probably take place in May.'' Mr. Way said the auction would be organised by US Government officials on the Island, with Bermuda Customs notified as duty is payable on each item. And he said the station was still working to track space missions -- even though it was no longer central to every NASA lift-off.

"We are still supporting missions but only with one electronic system now, instead of four,'' he added. "We are out of the frontline and our tracking operations are for the Air Force only right now.'' The station was originally due to close in September but won a dramatic six-month reprieve when NASA bosses in Houston feared the hurricane-hit Antigua tracking station would not be able to continue monitoring space flights.

A skeleton crew was kept on in Bermuda to provide vital voice-data for space shuttle astronauts until the end of March.

The station, which has monitored all NASA space flights since 1961, closed phase one of its operation last April. That was after Bermuda abandoned its telecommunications powers because of a new NASA tracking relay-satellite -- and space shuttle astronauts said an emotional farewell in a live link-up with the Cooper's Island crew.

Phase two of the wind-down came in late September, when the station ripped up its radar capability.

But Bermuda still has the air-to-ground voice system and can still blow up satellite launchers which stray off orbit.