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Despite New Deorbit Route Japan Wary of Mir
By Kyodo World Service
posted: 10:15 am ET
15 March 2001
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mir_japan_taiwan_010315 Russia said Thursday its abandoned space station Mir may fly over islands in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture and its vicinity, after implying Wednesday's safety notice for Japan only referred to its main islands. Russian Aviation and Space Agency spokesman Sergey Gorbunov said Thursday the 140-ton, 108-foot (33-meter) Mir will not fly over Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku or Kyushu islands before debris from its breakup falls into the Pacific east of New Zealand. But he added that ''possibilities remain'' that it will pass over ''islands and seas southwest of Kyushu.'' His remarks suggest the 15-year-old orbital outpost will fly in a southeasterly direction over the eastern coast of China, islands in Okinawa Prefecture and Taiwan. [uplink] Viktor Blagov, deputy chief of the agency's control center, said Mir's flight route would be 620 to 685 miles (1,000 to 1,100 kilometers) southwest of Japan's main islands. The distance is approximately equal to that between the southernmost end of Kyushu and the northernmost end of Taiwan. Blagov also said the space station will plunge to Earth between March 21 and 23, moving the previous schedule back by one day.
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