As a result of the maneuver, the altitude of the orbit will increase by 1.1 km
MOSCOW, February 16. /tass/. Correction of the orbit height of the International Space Station (ISS) is expected on February 26. This is stated in the message of Roscosmos, distributed on Wednesday.
"The next correction of the orbit height of the International Space Station is scheduled for February 26, 2022," the report says.
Roscosmos clarified that the purpose of the maneuver is to form ballistic conditions before launching the Soyuz MS-21 manned spacecraft into orbit (March 18) and landing Soyuz MS-19 (March 30).
"According to preliminary data from the ballistic and navigation support service of the TsNIIMash Mission Control Center (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation), at 04:37 Moscow time, it is planned to issue a command to turn on the engines of the Progress MS-18 cargo ship docked to the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the ISS," the message says.
The engines will work for 372.5 seconds and give an impulse of 0.54 m/s. As a result, the altitude of the orbit will increase by 1.1 km. The next correction of the orbit, Roscosmos clarified, will take place on March 11.
Currently on board the station are Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Peter Dubrov, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hai, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.