MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was adjusted to create ballistic conditions before the launch of the Progress MS-23 cargo ship, Roscosmos reported on Thursday.

"On May 24, a new cargo craft, Progress MS-23, will head to the ISS. However, before its launch it is necessary to create ballistic conditions for docking - to adjust the station's orbital altitude," the state corporation said.

Roscosmos specifies that, according to preliminary data, the average altitude of the station’s orbit increased by one km to 416.6 km above the Earth’s surface. The maneuver was carried out using the engines of cargo spacecraft Progress MS-22. They were switched on at 7:43 p.m. Moscow time and worked for 353.07 seconds.

The current crew on board the ISS includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin (TASS special correspondent on the ISS), Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, as well as United Arab Emirates’ astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi.