The
International Space Station (ISS) reached a higher orbit Wednesday after a
brief engine burn by a docked cargo ship.
The
Russian-built Progress
19 cargo ship, berthed at the aft end of the station's Zvezda service
module, fired its engines for about 13.5 minutes to push the orbital complex
eight statute miles (12 kilometers) up into an orbit 224 statute miles (360
kilometers) above Earth, NASA officials said.
The
maneuver places the station in the proper position to meet the next ISS crew, Expedition
13 commander Pavel Vinogradov, flight engineer Jeffrey Williams and Marcos
Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, they added.
The
Expedition 13 crew and Pontes launch toward the ISS on March 29 EST. Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev are currently
serving a six-month mission aboard the space station.
Progress
19's engine burn follows a similar maneuver by a second cargo ship - Progress
20 berthed at the station's Pirs docking compartment - on Feb. 13. That
earlier engine marked the first time a Progress ship raised the ISS orbit from
the Pirs port, NASA officials said.
McArthur
and Tokarev are packing Progress 19 with trash and unneeded items with plans to
jettison the disposable spacecraft on March 3. The cargo ship is expected to
burn up in the Earth's atmosphere shortly after.
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