MOSCOW, May 12, /TASS/. The orbital altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) will be adjusted on May 20 before the arrival of a Soyuz MS-19 manned spacecraft, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos said in a statement on Wednesday.

"In order to create initial ballistic conditions before the launch of a Soyuz MS-19 crewed transport spacecraft and the landing of a Soyuz MS-18 spaceship, a new adjustment of the International Space Station’s orbit has been scheduled for May 20, 2021," the Russian space agency said.

As Roscosmos specified, the maneuver will be conducted by a Progress MS-16 space freighter. According to the calculations of the Flight Control Center of the Roscosmos Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIIMash), the cargo spaceship’s thrusters will be ignited at 8:01 p.m. Moscow time to operate for 180 seconds, with an impulse of 0.2 m/s.

"After the maneuver, the ISS’ medium altitude will increase by 350 meters to 419.72 km," the Roscosmos press office said.

Currently, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide are working aboard the orbital outpost.