Article Posted on : - Jun 16, 2011

MOSCOW (BNS): Mission controllers at Russian space agency Roscosmos have corrected the orbit of the International Space Station for the third time this month in order to facilitate safe and successful docking of future spacecraft to be sent to the station.

The orbit of the space laboratory was raised by 10.2 km on Wednesday with the help of European space freighter ATV-2 Johannes Kepler. ISS spatial position was supported by Zvezda and Progress M-10M thrusters during the manoeuver.

The engines were started at 19:55 Moscow time. After the burn, the altitude of the station became about 10.2 km higher, and achieved approximately 374.7 km, the space agency said.

The entire operation lasted for about 40 minutes.

The European spacecraft, had, on June 12, conducted similar operations to readjust the ISS orbit. The space station’s orbit was raised by 19.2 kilometers to 364.6 km. The entire operation had lasted for one hour and 16 minutes.

The corrections in the ISS orbit have been conducted ahead of Russia’s Progress space freighter’s launch set for June 21 followed by US’s last space mission, shuttle Atlantis’ flight, on July 8.