On Thursday, September 10, 2020, specialists of the Roscosmos State Corporation accomplished ISS orbit adjustment maneuver. For this, the engines of the Progress MS-14 transport cargo vehicle docked to the Zvezda module of the ISS Russian segment were switched on at 23:32, Moscow time. They worked for 225 seconds, as a result, the average altitude of the ISS orbit increased by 0.8 km, the magnitude of the velocity impulse – 0.45 m/s.
According to the data of the ballistic and navigation support service of the Flight Control Center of the Central Scientific Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (MCC TsNIIMash, part of the State Corporation Roscosmos), the parameters of the space station’s orbit after the correction were:
• Orbital period: 92.90 min;
• orbital inclination: 51.66 degrees;
• minimum height above the Earth’s surface: 419.6 km;
• maximum height above the Earth’s surface: 437.9 km.
This operation was carried out with the aim of forming ballistic conditions before the launch and docking of the Soyuz MS-17 manned transport vehicle, which are scheduled for October 14, 2020. The crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins. The backup crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai.
