Moscow, Nov 21 : The orbital altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) will be adjusted on December 1 using the engines of Russia’s Progress cargo spacecraft, in preparation for the arrival of space tourists, a space industry source told Sputnik.
“The maneuver is planned for December 1, the preliminary time is 15.18 Moscow time [12:18 GMT],” the source said.
A Soyuz MS-20 flight scheduled for December 8 is expected to take the first two Japanese space tourists to the ISS — billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his production assistant Yozo Hirano. The mission will last 12 days and will be led by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
Last week, the orbit of the ISS was adjusted in order to evade the wreckage of a Chinese satellite.(UNI)