Space station increased in height to catch Soyuz

The International Space Station (ISS) on October 17 will be adjusted to a new orbit to prepare for the Soyuz spacecraft to bring three astronauts to work on the station.

RIA Novosti quoted a Russian Mission Control Center expert as saying that the engines of Russia's Zvezda service module on ISS will be started to help push the station to a new location.

Three Soyuz astronauts TMA-06M are about to fly to the station.
From left: Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin

"This activity is expected to start at 22:24 (October 17 in Vietnam time). The Zvezda module's motors will operate within 19 seconds," the porcelain control center spokesman said. Russia said that and added, the average trajectory of ISS will be raised to a height of 436km.

It is known that the increase of ISS trajectory is carried out regularly to help this US $ 100 billion space station compensate for the loss of altitude due to the gravity of the earth, as well as to facilitate ISS connection. with the spacecraft.

In the short term, ISS will welcome Russia's Soyuz TMA-06M carrying three astronauts including Kevin Ford (USA), Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin (Russia's same), which are expected to leave the launch pad at Baikonur Space Airport of Russia in Kazakhstan on October 23 arrived and arrived at the station after two days of flight.

Soyuz crew TMA-06M when coming to ISS will join the 33rd ISS International Fleet with three people present on the station as commander Sunita Williams (USA), Akihiko Hoshide (Japan) and Yury Malenchenko (Russia ), Soyuz TMA-05M is taken to the station on July 17.

As planned, three Soyuz TMA-05M astronauts will return to Earth on November 12, while Soyuz TMA-06M with its three astronauts will land in Kazakhstan in March 2013.