Russia raises ISS orbit, confirms new crew

Russia's Mission Control Center raised the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) early Thursday to create favorable conditions for the upcoming docking, the center said. As a result, the ISS orbit was elevated by 1.8 km to 428.4 km. The maneuver was conducted at 03:11 Moscow time (2311 GMT Wednesday) by the boosters of the ISS' Zvezda module and lasted 63 seconds. The center said the correction was a complete success. Corrections to the space station's orbit are conducted periodically before launches of Russian cargo ships and U.S. shuttles to compensate for the Earth's gravity and ensure successful dockings. Also on Thursday, the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, the Cosmonauts Training Center, as well as other agencies and institutions confirmed the new crew members who are to travel to the ISS on Dec 21. The main crew includes Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Donald Pettit from the NASA.