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Space station's orbit raised ahead of Discovery docking
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    • MOSCOW, Dec 5 (AFP) Dec 05, 2006
     An operation to raise the orbit of the International Space Station to allow it to dock with the US space shuttle Discovery next month was successfully completed, Russian news agencies reported early Tuesday.

    "The orbit's correction was done with the help of the Progress M-58 cargo spacecraft, whose engines switched on at 00:36 Moscow time (2136 GMT Monday) and worked for some 1,364 seconds," officials in Russian mission control said as quoted by Interfax.

    As a result, the ISS orbit was raised by 8.5 kilometers (3.3 miles), reaching the maximum altitude of 357 kilometers (222 miles).

    The operation to raise the station's orbit was designed to allow Discovery to dock with the station following its planned launch on Thursday.

    The last operation to raise the station's orbit took place last week, but failed for an unknown reason.




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