The height of the orbit of the International Space Station was adjusted in order to form initial ballistic conditions before removing into the orbit of the piloted ship “Union of MS-21” and planting the descent vehicle of the Soyuz MS-19 ship in 2022. According to preliminary data, after maneuver, the height of the ISS orbit decreased by about 1.8 km.
On Friday, December 24, 2021, at 04:18 Moscow time, a team was issued and engines of the MS-18 progress cargo ship engines docked to the Russian segment of the ISS. They worked 539.4 seconds, and the impulse value was 1.06 m / s. Currently, specialists of the Ballistic-navigation provision of the Center for Flight Management TsNIIMASH (part of Roskosmos State Corporation) receive complete telemetry information to determine the exact parameters of the ICS orbit.
Previously, the height of the station orbits was adjusted on December 3 in order to evade the “space garbage” – a fragment of the American PEGASUS carrier rocket launched from the territory of the United States in 1994.
Running the transport piloted ship “Union MS-21” with the crew of the 67th long expedition is scheduled for March 18, 2022. For the first time, the transport ship must docile to the nodal module “Poor”, which in November 2021 became part of the Russian segment of the ISS. Landing the descent apparatus “Union MS-19” ship with astronauts of Roscosmos Anton Dracker and Peter Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vanda Haem is scheduled for the end of March.