MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Space Agency said Thursday that Wednesday's abortive orbit correction would not affect the safety of the International Space Station (ISS) or its crew.
"At present, [the ISS's] average orbit height is 347 kilometers [215 miles]," the agency said. "The orbit correction failure did not affect flight safety or the safety of the crew."
An emergency situation arose early Wednesday caused by a system engine shutoff of the Progress M-55 cargo vehicle during initial ISS orbit correction maneuvers, which were designed to raise the station's orbit by 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) to maintain working orbital parameters.
"Orbit correction can be performed by other engines, either of the Progress M-55 or of the ISS service module," the agency said, adding that the next ISS orbital correction would be made after experts had studied the situation.
