MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The European cargo spacecraft Jules Verne ATV has raised the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) by more than 4.5 kilometers.
"The spacecraft engines worked for 739 seconds. Over this period, the average height of the ISS orbit was raised from 338 kilometers to 342.6 kilometers over the Earth," a spokesperson for Mission Control Center told Interfax-AVN.
This was the first adjustment of the ISS orbit by the European spacecraft. Until now, the station's orbit could only be raised by using the engines of the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft and the Zvezda service module. Only once was the orbit raised using the engines of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis.
The ISS orbit's height was raised as part of preparations for the arrival of Russia's Progress M-64 spacecraft and the U.S. space shuttle Discovery, which are due for launch into space in May.