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RF Mission Control raises orbit of Progress ship undocked from ISS

The operation to launch the satellite “in the free floating” is scheduled for 03:19 MSK on January 25

MOSCOW, January 24 (Itar-Tass) — Specialists of the Russian Mission Control Centre (MCC) by two impulses raised the orbit of the Progress cargo spacecraft, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, to 500 kilometres.

“The first impulse (34.75 metres per second) was given at 05:35 MSK, the second (26.25 metres per second) - at 06:22, Moscow time,” the MCC specified.

Thanks to the manoeuvre the Progress M-13M spaceship was placed on a working orbit at an altitude of about 500 kilometres, the most favourable for the launch of the Chibis-M microsatellite, which is installed on board the cargo spacecraft. The operation to launch the satellite “in the free floating” is scheduled for 03:19 MSK on January 25.

The Chibis-M small spacecraft, delivered to the ISS in early November 2011 on the Progress M-13M spaceship is designed for conducting a new geophysical experiment entitled Microsatellite, which envisages a comprehensive study of physical processes in atmospheric lightning discharges in a wide range of energies - from radio to gamma radiation. The mass of the microsatellite, created by scientists from the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Lebedev Physics Institute (FIAN) is 34.4 kilograms, the mass of scientific instruments on board is about 12 kilograms. It consists of an X-ray gamma radiation detector, UV detector, an RF analyzer, a digital camera of optical range, as well as a set of plasma-wave devices. The period of active life of Chibis-M should be at least two years.