The management of the orbital movement of the International Space Station is the most complex work that specialists of subsidiaries of the state corporation “Roskosmos” are continuously conducted. The main task is to form ballistic conditions for the launch of transport ships on the ISS and the descent of Russian manned ships in the most favorable area.
On October 5, 2021, the launch of the transport piloted ship “Union MS-19” is scheduled from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Its rapprochement from the ISS is planned to be carried out according to the “ultrashort” two-sufficient scheme with docking just three hours after launch. For this, the ballistics are necessary with great accuracy to ensure the position of the ISS regarding the ship at the end of the portion of its removal of the carrier to orbit. In addition, after 12 days after the launch of the ship “Union of MS-19”, the station will leave another ship – Soyuz MS-18.
on the formation of the ISS orbit, in which the “ultra-low” scheme of the approach of the ship is also possible, and the subsequent landing of the trigger with the ship’s crew, goes around half a year: for example, to the launch of the Soyuz MS-19 ship and landing the ship “Union of MS -18 “From May of this year, you need five corrections of the parameters of the station orbit. Typically, the ISS orbital maneuvers increase the average height of its orbits, but in this case, at the final stage of the formation of the ISS orbit, it was required to ensure that the crew of the Soyuz MS-18 ship is planting in a given area.
The next correction of the height of the ISS orbit is scheduled for September 24. According to preliminary data of the ballistic-navigation service of the Center for Flight Management TsNIIMASH (part of the state corporation “Roskosmos”), the engines of the service module “Star” of the Russian segment of the ISS will be included at 17:23 Moscow time and will work 48 seconds. The magnitude of the pulse will be 0.66 m / s. After the corrective maneuvers, the height of the station orbits will decrease by 1.2 km.
Parameters of the ISS orbit after the adjusting maneuver:
- Couch period: 92.91 min;
- Obligation of the orbit: 51.66 degrees;
- Minimum orbit height: 418.5 km;
- Maximum Orbit Height: 438.5 km.
Now, on board the International Space Station, the crew in the astronauts of Roscosmos Oleg Novitsky and Peter Dubrova, NASA Astronaut Mark Vanda Haya, arrived on April 9, 2021 on the Soyuz MS-18 ship, as well as Crew Dragon crew members of the NASA astronauts Shane Cybrou and Megan Macarutur, Astronaut of the European Space Agency Tom Sand and Astronaut of the Japanese Agency Agency Aerosmatic Research Aquico Hoshide.