Progress MS-28 Successfully Adjusts ISS Orbit Before New Crew Arrival

The Progress MS-28 spacecraft successfully adjusted the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) in anticipation of the arrival of the new crew. Today, an orbit correction was carried out to ensure the launch of the Soyuz MS-26 manned spacecraft and the landing of Soyuz MS-25, scheduled for September 2024.

The engines of the Progress MS-28 cargo ship, which is docked to the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the ISS, were activated at 22:45 Moscow time.

According to preliminary data from the Mission Control Center of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (part of Roscosmos State Corporation), the engines operated for 781.98 seconds, providing an impulse of 1.42 m/s.

As a result, the average altitude of the station's orbit was increased by 2.48 km, reaching 420.69 km.

To date, 365 corrections of its orbit have been carried out during the ISS flight, of which 207 were performed using the engines of Progress ships.

The launch of the Soyuz MS-26 manned spacecraft from the 31st site of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, on the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle, is scheduled for September 11. The main crew of the 72nd long-term expedition to the ISS includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchintin and Ivan Wagner, as well as NASA astronaut Donald Pettit. The return to Earth of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with the crew of the 71st long-term expedition - Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson - is scheduled for September 23.

Currently, the crew of the 71st long-term expedition is working on board the ISS, which, in addition to Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Tracy Dyson, includes Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, as well as NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeannette Epps, Barry Wilmore, and Sunita Williams.

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