ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.
Dec. 3, 2021
Specialists from the Moscow Region TsNIIMash Mission Control Center (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) on December 3, 2021, at 10:58 Moscow time, carried out an unscheduled correction of the orbital altitude of the International Space Station to avoid "space debris" - a stage fragment of the American Pegasus launch vehicle. launched from the United States in 1994.
International Space Station (ISS)
All operations were carried out routinely in full accordance with the calculations of the Russian specialists of the ballistic service. For this maneuver, the engines of the Progress MS-18 cargo vehicle were used, which operated for 160.9 seconds. The impulse was minus 0.3 m / s. After carrying out the corrective maneuver, the station's orbit altitude was preliminarily reduced by 310 meters.
According to the updated data from the ballistic and navigation support service of the Flight Control Center of TsNIIMash, the parameters of the ISS orbit after the evasion maneuver were:
- Circulation period: 92.91 minutes;
- Orbital inclination: 51.66 degrees;
- Minimum orbit altitude: 420.30 km;
- Maximum orbital altitude: 434.84 km;
- Mean orbit height: 419.65 km.
This correction did not affect the plans for launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome and docking with the ISS of the Soyuz MS-20 manned spacecraft on December 8, 2021.
According to the Central Information and Analytical Center of the Automated System for Warning of Dangerous Situations in Near-Earth Space TsNIIMash, the ISS would have approached a minimum distance of 3 km with a fragment of the destroyed stage at 13:33 Moscow time.
Related article:
Station Separates from Debris After Orbital Maneuver
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/12/station-separates-from-debris-after.html
Related links:
ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/33531/
TsNIIMash: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/cniimash/
MCC: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/cup/
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/mks/
Image, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/TsNIIMash/MCC/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
Best regards, Orbiter.ch
