On January 21, 2021, the Russian Mission Control Center specialists (TsNIIMash, part of Roscosmos) corrected the International Space Station orbit in accordance with the station’s flight program. To do so, the Progress MS-14 cargo spacecraft engines docked to the Zvezda service module of the ISS Russian segment were automatically fired at 16:14 UTC.
The orbit was adjusted in full accordance with the calculated data. The engines of the cargo spacecraft burned for 417.5 s, increasing the station’s average orbit altitude by 1.25 km reaching 419.79 km. According to TsNIIMash Mission Control Center, the ISS orbit parameters are as follows:
- Rotation period: 92.91 min;
- Orbit inclination: 51.66 deg;
- Minimal altitude over the Earth’s surface: 420.09 km;
- Maximum altitude over the Earth’s surface: 436.17 km.
The orbit was adjusted to form ballistic conditions prior to the Soyuz MS-18 crewed spacecraft launch and the Soyuz MS-17 descent vehicle landing, scheduled for April 2021. The previous ISS orbit correction was conducted on November 12, 2020 using the MS-14 cargo spacecraft engines increasing in the average altitude of the station’s orbit by 1.2 km as well.
Currently, the 64th long-term expedition crew is working on board the International Space Station. The crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronauts Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi.