International Space Station orbit to be raised by 1.7 km

Brahmand.com ^ | 3/24/2010 | Brahmand.com

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The International Space Station (ISS) orbital altitude will be raised by 1.7 kilometers (about a mile) on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control orbital altitude has said.

The space station manoeuvre will be carried out with the help of eight boosters on board the Progress M-04M space freighter which is currently docked with the Zvezda module on the ISS, Ria Novosti quoting the spokesman said.

"As a result of the operation...the ISS's orbit will be raised 1.7 kilometers, bringing the space station to an altitude of 348 kilometers (about 216 miles) above the Earth's surface," he said.

The international space station's orbit is changed periodically before the launch of Russian spacecraft and U.S. shuttles to compensate for Earth's gravity and to safeguard successful dockings with the ISS.

The next ISS mission is scheduled to depart for the orbital station on a Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft on April 2.

[SunTzuWu]

This plot shows the orbital height of the ISS over the last year. Clearly visible are the re-boosts which suddenly increase the height, and the gradual decay in between. The height is averaged over one orbit, and the gradual decrease is caused by atmospheric drag. As can be seen from the plot, the rate of descent is not constant and this variation is caused by changes in the density of the tenuous outer atmosphere due mainly to solar activity.

ISS Height Profile from Heavens Above.

[Right Wing Assault]

Your link had an html “paragraph” appended.

http://www.heavens-above.com/IssHeight.aspx?Session=kebgffaehgbfbgccfcnjckoi

[Right Wing Assault]

Cool graph.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Heavens Above is a great website

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow! 20 km / year degradation? I’m very surprised it’s that fast. It looks like the boosts in the last year have nowhere near compensated fully for the degradation.

[dr_who]

In space, that’s equivalent of driving your car out of the garage and over to the mailbox.

[altair]

In space, that’s equivalent of driving your car out of the garage and over to the mailbox.

My mother drives to her mailbox ...

[Robe]

ping

[dr_who]

What does she think about NASA?

[SunTzuWu]

Thanks for the fix.

[REDWOOD99]

Dang! I’ll never hit it w/my slingshot now!

[Right Wing Assault]

Wow! 20 km / year degradation?

I was surprised, too. The surface area with the solar panels is huge compared to its mass, so that's probably why it's so easily affected.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That’s what I figured, too. Who would have thought drag coefficient would be so important for a spacecraft? Maybe they need better aerodynamic design up there.