TOKYO (AP) -- Russia's ambassador reassured Japanese officials Thursday that plans to ditch the aging space station Mir in the Pacific later this month pose no significant threat to Japan.
Ambassador Alexander Nikolaevich Panov was called in by the Foreign Ministry and asked to convey to Moscow Japan's need for prompt and full information about Mir's reentry over the south Pacific.
He said he would do so, and added that Mir is "under control," said Takayuki Koike, an official with the ministry's international science cooperation division.
Before breaking up somewhere over the Pacific between Australia and Chile, the Russian space station is to pass over a heavily populated swath of Japan's main island. Japan would be the last populated area under Mir's path.
Yutaka Kawashima, administrative vice-minister for foreign affairs, told Panov that concerns among the Japanese people and media are high regarding Mir's reentry.
"We must take into consideration every possibility," Kawashima told Panov. He added that Japan will soon send some experts to the control center near Moscow to monitor the situation.
Some 1,500 fragments of 40 pounds (20 kilograms) or more -- the largest could weigh as much as 1,500 pounds (700 kilograms) -- are expected to fall over the target area.
Russia's previous attempts at disposing of dated spacecraft have been problematic.
A Soviet defense satellite plunged out of control and left radioactive debris in the Canadian Arctic in 1978. Mir's predecessor, Salyut 7, fell on the Andes Mountains, causing no damage or injuries but generating fears worldwide in 1991.
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