Russian cargo craft uses thrusters to adjust orbit of space station

MOSCOW, May 17 (UPI) -- A Russian Progress M-19M resupply spacecraft attached to the International Space Station was used to adjust the station's orbit Friday, Russian officials say.

The space freighter's engines were run for slightly more than 15 minutes to raise the ISS's orbit by about 1.6 miles, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The station's orbit is now 259 miles above the Earth, RIA Novosti reported.

Adjustments to the station's orbit are routinely carried out to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to prepare for the successful docking and undocking of spacecraft delivering supplies and new crew to the ISS.

The Progress space freighter that made the orbit adjustment launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan April 24 and docked with the space station's Zvezda module on April 26.

In the next mission to the ISS, a Soyuz TMA-09M will launch from Baikonur May 29 to take new crew members to the station: Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia, Karen Nyberg of the United States and Luca Parmitano of Italy, Roscosmos said.

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Russian cargo craft uses thrusters to adjust orbit of space station