The International Space Station (ISS) will make a maneuver to a new orbit on Thursday to avoid debris from a Japanese satellite, a Russian Flight Control Center representative told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

"The maneuver is planned for 7.22 a.m. Moscow time," the source said, adding the danger from the fragments will be closest at 12.31 p.m. The size of the fragment cloud is not known.

A Russian Zvezda service module will help make the maneuver, the source said. The decision to make the move is a provisional one and may be changed, Flight Control added.

It was previously reported on Tuesday that the maneuver could take place in the next 30 hours as the result of a decision by a combined team of American and Russian ballistics experts.