Space Station Orbit Adjustment 'to Continue on Aug. 22'

© NASA"Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3
Edoardo Amaldi Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 - Sputnik International
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The European Space Agency's ATV-3 space freighter will carry on with a planned manouver to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22, the agency said on Thursday.

The European Space Agency's ATV-3 space freighter will carry on with a planned manouver to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22, the agency said on Thursday.

The regularly planned reboost, by the "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3, stopped "prematurely" on Wednesday due to a temperature alarm in the vehicle's propulsion system, the ESA said in a statement.

The ATV-3, docked at the ISS's Zvezda module, was scheduled to raise the station's orbit by 7.7 kilometers to an altitude of 414.42 kilometers.

"It has been jointly agreed with the ISS control centres to perform the remainder of yesterday's reboost during the next scheduled reboost slot, set for 22 August," said ESA's Jean-Michel Bois, head of Mission Operations at ATV-Control Center.

Bois said the decision was taken in order to give engineers on the ground enough time to complete their investigation into Wednesday's incident.

The reboost was intended to ensure the best conditions for the landing of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft on its return to Earth and the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the orbital outpost, slated for October 15.

Adjustments to the station's orbit are carried out regularly to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to facilitate the successful docking and undocking of spacecraft.

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