Russian Cargo Craft Progress Successfully Brings ISS into a Higher Orbit

Russian cargo spaceship Progress M-47 has carried out a successful operation to bring the International Space Station /ISS/ into a higher orbit, the Mission Control's press service informed RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

The orbit of the station was raised some 10 km by a sustained single-impulse burn of the Progress's engines. Currently, the ISS is supposed to be 400 km from the Earth at apogee /the altitude is being specified/, which will provide normal work conditions for cosmonauts of the 6th host crew at the station till this June.

The operation was supposed to be carried out by an American space shuttle early in March. However, the break-up of the Columbia on February 1st suspended the shuttles from flights. In this connection only Russian spacecraft will be raising the ISS' orbits, the Mission Control remarked.