MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. The orbit adjustment for the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for November 16 has been cancelled, following a space debris avoidance maneuver, Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos told TASS on Thursday.
The ISS orbit was adjusted on Wednesday night to avoid a collision with space debris, Roscosmos said.
"The avoidance maneuver was calculated by ballistics specialists of the Flight Control Center at TsNIImash (part of Roscosmos), which allowed cancelling the November 16 orbit adjustment," the Russian space agency said.
As Roscosmos told TASS on Wednesday, a fragment of the Chinese Fengyun-1C weather satellite would approach the orbital outpost at about 04:00 Moscow time on November 12. In order to avoid a collision with the space debris, the ISS orbital altitude was raised by 1.2 km on Wednesday night.
Previously, the ISS orbit adjustment was scheduled for November 16 to create the ballistic conditions before the launch and landing of a manned Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft.
The launch of the Soyuz MS-20 manned spacecraft with two space tourists is scheduled for December 8, 2021. The space travelers will spend 12 days in orbit. Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will be the commander of the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft that will also carry Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and his business assistant Yozo Hirano.