MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The next adjustment of the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) is planned for April 13 in the interest of future missions, a source from the rocket and space industry told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
"The maneuver is tentatively scheduled for April 13. It will be performed by burns of the Progress MS-02 cargo ship, which will be launched on March 31," the source said.
The purpose of the orbit adjustment is to create ballistic conditions for the descent of the Soyuz TMA-19M manned spaceship into central Kazakhstan on June 5 and the docking of the Soyuz MS spaceship on June 24.
The ISS is being manned by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra and ESA astronaut Timothy Peake.
The first manned spaceship of a new series, Soyuz MS, is due to take off on June 21, 2016. Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia, Takuya Onishi of Japan and Kathleen Rubins of the United States are preparing for this mission.