The orbit of the ISS was changed to avoid collision with space junk

The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was changed to avoid collision with space junk. The station was led away from the collision by the Russian cargo ship Progress MS-20. This was reported in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

“The engines of the Progress MS-20 spacecraft on the ISS were turned on for five minutes and five seconds to perform an evasive maneuver to provide additional distance from the predicted trajectory of the fragment of debris from the Russian satellite Cosmos-1408,” the report said.

As a result of the maneuver, which took place at 20:25 U.S. East Coast time, the station rose to about 350 yards.

Earlier, Roscosmos reported that Progress MS-20 corrected the ISS orbit on October 17. The station’s average orbital altitude increased by almost 1.2 miles.

In September, Rafail Murtazin, head of the ballistics department of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, said that Russia had developed a new scheme for approaching the ISS for the flight of the Progress MS-21.