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Space station’s orbit raised ahead of Soyuz spacecraft’s arrival with Japanese tourists

The launch of the Soyuz MS-20 manned spacecraft with two space tourists is scheduled for December 8, 2021

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was adjusted to prepare for the arrival of a Soyuz MS-20 crewed spacecraft that will deliver two tourists from Japan to the orbital outpost in December, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Tuesday.

"According to the preliminary data, the ISS orbit was raised by about 940 meters after the maneuver," the statement says.

As Roscosmos specified, the maneuver was performed using the thrusters of the Zvezda module in the ISS Russian segment. The thrusters were ignited at 10:05 a.m. Moscow time for 38.9 seconds.

"Specialists of the Ballistic and Navigational Support Service of the Flight Control Center at TsNIImash (part of Roscosmos) are calculating updated parameters of the ISS orbit," the Russian space agency added.

Currently, 10 crewmembers are working aboard the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

The launch of the Soyuz MS-20 manned spacecraft with two space tourists is scheduled for December 8, 2021. The space travelers will spend 12 days in orbit. Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will be the commander of the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft that will also carry Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and his business assistant Yozo Hirano.

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