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Space Stationâ€™s Orbit to be Adjusted for Next Spacecraft

17 October 2012 02:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Specialists of the Moscow Region-based Mission Control Center will on Wednesday carry out a maneuver to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station, a spokesman for the center said, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

The readjustment will be carried out with the use of thrusters of the Russian Zvezda service module.
â€œThe operation is expected to begin at 19:24 Moscow time [15:24 GMT]. The engines of the Zvezda module will operate for 19 seconds,â€ the spokesman said adding that the stationâ€™s average orbit altitude will be raised by one kilometer to 436 km (270.9 miles).
The reboost is intended to ensure the best conditions for the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the orbital outpost, slated for October 25.
The Soyuz TMA-06M will bring to the station a new crew, which comprises Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford.
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.