MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was raised on Thursday to set up the phasing requirements for the February 11 launch of Russia's Progress M-18M resupply ship, the Russian Mission Control Center said on its website on Thursday.
"This maneuver was aimed at maintaining and forming the ISS' operational orbit in the run-up to the flight of the Progress M-18M cargo carrier, which is expected to take off on February 11, 2013," it said.
The orbiting outpost was raised to a new altitude with the help of the thrusters from the Progress M-17M resupply ship, which is docked to the Zvezda service module.
The Progress M-17M engines fired at 6:15 a.m. Moscow time and operated for 233 seconds, the center's ballistics and navigation service said.
"The delta-V (DV-change in station velocity) was 0.46 m/s. The average altitude of its orbit was raised by 830 meters to 411 kilometers," it said.