Moscow, Dec 1 (IANS) The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was Thursday elevated by 1.8 km by Russia’s Mission Control Centre.
The orbit was raised to 428.4 km to ‘create favourable conditions’ for an upcoming docking, Xinhua reported.
The manoeuvre was conducted at 3.11 a.m. Moscow time (2311 GMT Wednesday) by the boosters of the space station’s Zvezda module and lasted 63 seconds.
The centre said the elevation was a ‘complete success’.
Changes in the space station’s orbit are conducted periodically before launches of Russian cargo ships and US shuttles to compensate for the Earth’s gravity and ensure successful dockings.
Meanwhile, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos Thursday said the new crew members who are to travel to the ISS Dec 21 have been confirmed. They are Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency and American astronaut Donald Pettit.
