Space Station’s Orbit Raised 2.8 Km
14:54 17/05/2013 MOSCOW, May 17 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian Progress M-19M resupply spacecraft readjusted the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
The space freighter’s engines were run for 922.4 seconds (just over 15 minutes). As a result of the maneuver, the ISS’s orbit was raised by about 2.8 kilometers [1.6 miles], the spokesman said adding that the station’s orbit is now 430.3 kilometers (259 miles) from Earth.
The Progress M-19M space freighter blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on April 24 and docked with the ISS Zvezda module on April 26.
Adjustments to the station's orbit are carried out regularly to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to facilitate the successful docking and undocking of spacecraft.
A Soyuz TMA-09M, to be launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on May 29, will take new crew members to the station - Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia, Karen Nyberg of the United States and Luca Parmitano of Italy.
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