Int'l Space Station To Get Orbital Altitude Correction On January 21 - Roscosmos

The orbital height of the International Space Station (ISS) will be increased by 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) before the April crew change, a spokesperson for Russian state space agency Roscosmos told Sputnik on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th January, 2021) The orbital height of the International Space Station (ISS) will be increased by 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) before the April crew change, a spokesperson for Russian state space agency Roscosmos told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"In order to shape the ballistic conditions for the landing of the Soyuz MS-17 manned spacecraft, as well as the launch and docking of the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft, a regular orbital correction of the ISS is scheduled for January 21," the spokesperson said.

The orbital altitude will be changed by the launch of engines of the Progress MS-14 spacecraft docked to the Zvezda module. The Roscosmos spokesperson said the engine would be started at 7:14 p.m. Moscow time (16:14 GMT) and run for 418.5 seconds, which will push the station's orbital height 1.

2 kilometers up to 419.8 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

The previous ISS orbital height correction was carried out the same way on November 12.

Soyuz MS-18 is scheduled to depart to the ISS from the Baikonur space field on April 9. It will carry three members of ISS Expedition 65 Crew Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and Sergey Korsakov.

In December, Sputnik learned from a Russian space source that the United States might buy one of the spots for NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, in which case he will replace Korsakov aboard Soyuz MS-18.

Soyuz MS-17 is expected to return to Earth on April 17, bringing back three ISS Expedition 64 crew Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins.