ESA - ATV-3 "Edoardo Amaldi" patch.
31/03/2012
April 1 in accordance with the program to ensure the ballistic flight of the International Space Station is scheduled test correction of its orbit. The planned operation is carried out in order to verify the functionality of the ISS cargo spacecraft ATV-3 ("Edoardo Amaldi"), docked to the station on March 29.
ATV-3 boost ISS orbit
The maneuver will be performed using the two main engines of European truck. Maintaining the desired spatial position of the ISS at the time of the correction will be provided orientation engines of the Russian Service Module "Zvezda" and the cargo ship "Progress M-14M."
ATV / Soyuz-TMA / Progress-M / HTV size's comparative
According to the ballistic Service Mission Control Center Engineering Research Institute engines will be included in 1:00 and 54 minutes Moscow Time (March 31 at 21:54 GMT) and have worked for 411 seconds. As a result, the ISS will receive an additional boost of 1 meter per second. The average height of its orbit will increase by 1.7 kilometers and will be 389.8 kilometers.
For more Information about ISS, visit: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/iss.html and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images, Text, Credits: Press-service of Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the PCO / ESA / Orbiter.ch / Translation: Orbiter.ch.
Cheers, Orbiter.ch
