The orbit of the International Space Station has been adjusted to create the necessary ballistic conditions for the launch of the new Progress MS-25 cargo ship.
According to the press service of Roscosmos, the engines of the Progress MS-24 cargo ship docked to the Russian segment of the ISS, were activated at 06:46 Moscow time and operated for 1029.9 seconds, delivering an impulse of 1.5 m/s.
After that, the average altitude of the ISS orbit increased by 2.8 km and amounted to 418.23 km above the Earth's surface. "Progress MS-25" is scheduled to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket on December 1 this year.
Work on the ISS is proceeding as usual. However, after the recent accident on the Russian Nauka module, NASA has extended the ban on astronauts going into open space until the end of the year.
The date of the spacewalk has been adjusted to allow engineers additional time to complete an analysis of the coolant leak that occurred and stopped on Oct. 9. The coolant is not toxic and does not pose a danger to the crew, but experts are discussing how best to prevent small traces of the substance from entering some internal systems to avoid damage to equipment and its destruction over time. The tasks planned for this spacewalk are not time-dependent, and the schedule adjustment will not affect the operation of the space station in any way.
Roscosmos has not yet reported that it is canceling the next spacewalk of Russians on October 25. Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub are to install a radar on the affected Nauka module to observe the Earth's surface, launch the Parus-MGTU student nanosatellite, and take photographs of the leak site to send the images to Earth.