MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was adjusted in the run-up to the arrival of the Soyuz MS-26 manned spacecraft and the departure of its predecessor, Soyuz MS-25, Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos said.

"Today, the orbit of the International Space Station was adjusted to ensure the launch of the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft and the landing of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, scheduled to take place in September 2024," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Thrusters of the Progress MS-26 space freighter were turned on at 10:45 p.m. Moscow time (7:45 p.m. GMT) for 781.98 seconds. As a result, the station’s average altitude was raised by 2.48 km, to 420.69 km above the surface of the Earth.

Currently, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko who is also a TASS special reporter in space, Nikolay Chub and Alexander Grebenkin, NASA astronauts Mathew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Tracy Dyson and their crew mates Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams who have arrived at the orbital outpost on the first Boeing Starliner crewed flight are working aboard the ISS.

The Soyuz MS-26 manned spacecraft is set to launch to the ISS on September 11. The crewed spaceship will deliver Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner (a TASS special correspondent in space) and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit to the orbital outpost.