ISS maneuvers to evade space junk

MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - The engines of the Progress MS-20 cargo spacecraft were powered to adjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) in an unscheduled maneuver to evade space debris, the Roscosmos press service said.

"On Monday, October 17, 2022, the orbit of the International Space Station was adjusted to avoid a collision with space junk," Roscosmos said on Telegram.

The engines of the Progress MS-20 resupply ship, currently docked at the Zvezda service module of the ISS Russian segment, were powered at 10:27 p.m. Moscow time and ran for 630.8 seconds, providing a change in velocity of 1 meter per second.

"The preliminary available information indicates that after the maneuver the average altitude of the station's orbit increased by 1.75 kilometers to 417.9 kilometers," it said.

Since the ISS began operating, its orbit has been adjusted on 327 occasions, including 176 times using the engines of Progress resupply ships, Roscosmos said.