ISS orbit raised by 850 meters ahead of Soyuz MS-21 launch

MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. The International Space Station’s (ISS) flight orbit has been adjusted ahead of the Soyuz MS-21 launch and the Soyuz-19 landing, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said on Friday. "An International Space Station’s orbit adjustment has been carried out to create ballistic conditions ahead of the landing of the Soyuz MS-19 reentry vehicle and the launch of the Soyuz MS-21 manned spaceship," it said. The adjustment maneuver was carried out with the help of the engines of the Progress MS-18 cargo spaceship that were switched on at 22:35 Moscow time to be working for 320.01 seconds. "According to preliminary calculations, the stations’ altitude has been raised by 850 meters to reach 418.44 kilometers above Earth," Roscosmos said. The current ISS crew are Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and the European Space Agency’s Mattias Maurer. Read more