International Space Station Orbit Height Will Be Increased to 251 Miles

The average altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) orbit will be increased by 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) on Thursday, a representative of the Russian Mission Control Center told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – As a result of the correction, the altitude of the ISS orbit will increase to 404,500 meters (251 miles).

"The maneuver to increase the height of the flight orbit [of the ISS] will start at 06:45 Moscow time [03:45 GMT]," the representative said.

The correction is necessary in order to create optimal conditions for the launch and docking of the new manned Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft, planned for April.

Last November, the orbital height of the International Space Station was increased by 2.45 kilometers (about 1.5 miles).