By RIA Novasti
Moscow : Russian Mission Control said on Saturday it had successfully adjusted the International Space Station’s orbit in preparation for the docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft and a U.S. space shuttle.
Corrections to the space station’s orbit are conducted periodically before launches of Russian cargo ships and U.S. shuttles to compensate for Earth’s gravity and to ensure successful dockings.
The correction started at 3:42 a.m. Moscow time (00:42 a.m. GMT) with the help of thrusters at the Russian module Zvezda.
Zvezda thrusters were activated for 118 seconds, while the orbit was raised 5.25 kilometers (3.26 miles), bringing the space station to an altitude of around 340 kilometers (about 211 miles) over the Earth’s surface.
The correction was made without the crew’s participation, a Mission Control spokesman said.
The launches of the Russian Progress M-63 and the U.S. Atlantis spacecraft have been scheduled for early February.