The orbit of the International Space Station has been adjusted to create the necessary ballistic conditions for the launch of the new cargo ship "Progress MS-25".
According to the press service of Roscosmos, the engines of the cargo ship "Progress MS-24" docked to the Russian segment of the ISS, were activated at 06:46 Moscow time and worked for 1029.9 seconds, giving 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" should take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the 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 module "Nauka", the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) extended the ban on astronauts going into outer 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 a coolant leak that occurred and stopped on Oct. 9. The coolant is not toxic and poses no danger to the crew, but experts are discussing how best to prevent small traces of the substance from entering some internal systems to avoid equipment damage and degradation over time. The tasks planned for this spacewalk are not time-critical, and the schedule adjustment will not impact station operations in any way.
Roscosmos has not yet announced 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.
