Article Posted on : - Jan 25, 2010

A file photo of International Space Station.

MOSCOW (BNS): Russian space agency Roskosmos has raised the orbit of the International Space Station by about 5 kilometers ahead of the launch of its Progress M-04M space freighter next month.

Space experts adjusted the space station’s orbit for a second time on Sunday to compensate for Earth's gravity and create better docking conditions.

A similar adjustment was made on last Friday.

“The manoeuver was carried out in automatic mode using the correcting engine KD-1 and KD-2 (of) Russia's Zvezda Service Module,” Roskosmos said.

The adjustment in the ISS's orbit was made to create “optimal ballistic conditions” for upcoming space missions.

The entire operation lasted for about 150 seconds, the space agency said.