ISS Orbit Raised 0.6 Miles Ahead Of Arrival Of Tourist Spaceship - Roscosmos

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2021) The International Space Station (ISS) has been lifted nearly 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) to a higher altitude in preparation for the arrival of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz with two Japanese space tourists on board in December, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said on Tuesday.

"The height of the orbit of the International Space Station has been adjusted in preparation for the arrival of the Soyuz MS-20 manned transport� spacecraft. According to preliminary data, after the maneuver, the height of the ISS orbit increased by about 940 meters," the agency said in a statement.

On September 24, the altitude of the ISS orbit was lowered by 1.2 kilometers to accommodate the arrival of a Russian filming crew on October 5 to shoot the first ever movie at the international orbital station titled "The Challenge.

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The Soyuz MS-20 flight is scheduled for December 8 and is expected to take the first two Japanese space tourists to the ISS � billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his production assistant Yozo Hirano. The mission will last 12 days and will be led by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

The current ISS crew comprise Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov; NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough, and Megan McArthur; Japan's Akihiko Hoshide; and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, as well as the movie crew including Russian actress Yulia Peresild, movie director Klim Shipenko, and accompanying cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.