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Correction of ISS orbit in question due to loss of Russian cargo spacecraft

The previous calculations proceeded from the assumption the ISS mass would grow after Progress M-27M docking

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. The correction of the International Space Station’s orbit, originally scheduled for May 6, may be canceled or postponed due to the loss of the cargo spacecraft Progress M-27M, a source in the space rocket industry has told TASS.

"No decision to carry out the scheduled correction has been made yet. The previous calculations proceeded from the assumption the ISS mass would grow after Progress M-27M docking. In the current situation, after the docking failed to take place, the need for carrying out such a maneuver within days is still in the discussion and research phase," the source said.

Originally, the engines of the cargo spacecraft Progress M-27M were to be turned on May 6 to correct the ISS obit for ensuring proper conditions for the re-entry of the manned capsule Soyuz TMA-15M on May 14.

Progress M-27M was put in space from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhstan on April 28 with a Soyuz-2.1a rocket. It soon turned out that the spacecraft entered a wrong orbit and contact with it was lost. After several unsuccessful attempts to put the spacecraft under control specialists agreed its docking to the ISS was impossible.