ISS orbit correction moved to avoid convergence with U.S. missile fragment - ITAR-TASS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16. / Correspondent. ITAR-TASS Ivan Lebedev /. NASA and Roskosmos decided to postpone scheduled for Thursday correction orbit of the International Space Station, because if it could maneuver to approach chip American rocket ” Delta-1. ” However, as said in a telephone interview with Trend. ITAR-TASS spokesman Johnson Space Center in Houston (Texas) Rob Nevias, the crew of the space station is not in danger. In addition, the transfer of operations will not prevent the upcoming rendezvous with ISS cargo ship “Progress” and parting with manned “Union”.

Nevias said that “it is necessary to raise the orbit of the station to the correct position it occupied before docking with the cargo ship” Progress “, to be launched on February 5, and the return of the current crew to Earth on manned spacecraft” Soyuz “12 March “. Orbit correction was to be held on January 16 at 05:54 MSK, but was postponed at the request of NASA, to avoid a possible rapprochement between the ISS and space debris.

According to an employee at the Johnson Center, at the last moment from the Joint Command North American Aerospace Defense has been notified that due to changes in orbit “in the relative vicinity of the station may be a fragment of the old U.S. rocket body” Delta-1. “

“After consultations with Russian partners had decided to postpone the adjustment of the orbit – said Nevias. – Now it was moved to Friday evening on the U.S. East Coast time when Moscow has come Saturday morning. Thus, the operation was postponed for two days “.

However

prepare the station for docking with the “progress” and send “the Union” to the Earth it does not hurt. “In the coming days we will further study the rocket fragments and hope that it will not create any problems for the normal operation of the ISS,” – said an American expert. He could not specify the size of the fragment, but stressed that “the chances that it will create some problems, very small”.

orbital complex and its crew is not in danger, and we can say that the transfer orbit corrections – this precaution. “We always adhere to a conservative approach to security and strictly comply with all the rules in this regard. NASA continues to believe that safety is paramount,” – said Nevias.

Currently, as part of the 38th expedition to the ISS work Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazan and Mikhail Tyurin, U.S. astronaut Michael Hopkins and Richard Mastracchio, as well as their Japanese counterpart Koichi Wakata.

In Moscow Mission Control Center also reported that, as expected, “ISS orbit correction will be held on January 18, but this date is provisional.” Probably, the final decision on this matter by agreement between the space agencies of Russia and the United States will be made in the next days.