All news

ISS orbit corrected for docking of Progress M-20M cargo ship

Earth gravity and other factors reduce an orbital altitude by 150-200 meters per day, which makes it necessary to correct
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 10 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s Mission Control Centre has corrected the orbit of the International Space Station to create a working orbit for the docking of a Progress M-20M cargo ship that is expected to be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome later this month.

“The orbit was corrected in compliance with ballistic navigation support of the ISS mission,” a source at the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Engines of Europe’s robotic ATV-4 known as Albert Einstein were used to raise the orbit. They were switched on at 09:35 Moscow time for 593 seconds to give the ISS an additional boost of 1.45 meters per second. For this time the orbit was raised by approximately 2.5 kilometers and the orbit’s average altitude will reach 417.3 kilometers.

Earth gravity and other factors reduce an orbital altitude by 150-200 meters per day, which makes it necessary to correct the orbit.