Russian Mission Control Center Successfully Adjusts ISS Orbit

A second attempt to correct the International Space Station (ISS) orbit with the help of the docked Progress M-26M cargo spacecraft has concluded successfully, a space industry official told RIA Novosti on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Saturday, a planned correction of the ISS orbit could not be carried out after the Progress M-26M's engines failed to start on time.

"According to preliminary information, everything was carried out as normal. The engines were switched on at a designated time and worked for 30 minutes… The average value of the station's orbit increased by approximately 3 kilometers [1.86 miles]."

The orbit adjustment incident did not affect the schedule of a Proton-M rocket's launch of a Mexican communication satellite later that day. However, the attempt to bring MexSat-1 into orbit failed with the loss of the spacecraft. The ascent suffered a third stage failure just before the detachment of the satellite. MexSat-1 did not detach and was declared lost.

A similar accident with the carrier rocket occurred in May 2014. Experts do not exclude a similar defect in the turbopump that was not detected in a timely manner.