The orbit of the International Space Station has been adjusted to ensure the launch of the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft and the landing of Soyuz MS-23. As reported by Roscosmos, the engines of the Progress MS-24 freighter, docked in the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the ISS, were turned on the day before at 21:52 Moscow time and worked for 1314.56 seconds, producing a impulse. of magnitude 2.05 m/s.
As a result, according to preliminary data from the Mission Control Center of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation), the average height of the station’s orbit increased by 3.5 km and amounted to 419.24 km.
As experts say, there can be no strict orbital height. The space station is descending little by little, which depends on several factors. For example, solar activity. More than once it was necessary to change its trajectory due to space debris. Therefore, to create ballistic conditions for docking of arriving cargo and manned spacecraft, the ISS must be constantly “tuned” and “pushed” upwards. Sometimes for a few hundred meters, and sometimes very decently. Like, for example, 3.5 km!
During the entire flight to the ISS, 346 corrections to the height of its orbit were made, 192 of them with the help of the engines of the Progress spacecraft.
The launch of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft is scheduled for September 15. The crew includes the participants of the 70th and 71st long-duration expeditions to the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. This flight will be carried out in an ultra-short two-orbit scheme and will last only 3 hours and 14 minutes. Let us remember that until recently the traditional two-day scheme was when the ship circled the Earth 34 times. A four-lap circuit is also used, which lasts about six hours. The flight speed record in a two-orbit pattern (three hours) was set by Soyuz MS-17 on October 14, 2020: 3 hours and 3 minutes.
By the way, this will be Oleg Kononenko’s fifth flight: in his space luggage there are 736 days, 18 hours and 43 minutes in weightlessness. Thus Kononenko may become the first person on Earth to be in space for more than a thousand days.
The landing of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft with the crew of the 69th long-term expedition: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin, NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio is planned for September 27, 2023.
Currently working on board the ISS is the crew of the 69th long-duration expedition, which, in addition to Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and Francisco Rubio, includes Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, NASA astronaut Jasmine Mogbeli, the ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and JAXA astronaut. Satoshi Furukawa.
