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Russians Boost Space Station's Orbit

Posted on: Friday, 4 April 2003, 06:00 CST

Associated Press -- A Russian cargo ship pushed the international space station to a higher orbit Friday in preparation for the arrival of the station's next crew.

The Progress M-47 cargo ship fired its thrusters to raise the station's orbit by about 3 miles to 249 miles above the Earth's surface, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin as saying.

The maneuver will enable the docking of a Soyuz spacecraft expected to bring an American astronaut and his Russian colleague to the station later this month, Lyndin said.

In the past, both Russian supply ships and U.S. shuttles have regularly adjusted the station's orbit, which gradually decreases under the pull of the Earth's gravity.

But with U.S. space shuttle missions suspended pending the investigation into the Columbia disaster, the Russian ships have become the only link to the outpost.

The Progress M-47 hooked up to the station in early February, bringing fuel, food, water and other supplies for U.S. astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin.

The trio will be replaced by American Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, who will ride a Soyuz to the station April 26 for a six-month mission.

The current crew will return to Earth on an older Soyuz currently serving as the station's lifeboat.

Because of the grounding of the U.S. shuttle fleet, the Russian Cabinet on Thursday pledged additional money to build more spacecraft to service the station.

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