ISS orbit adjusted for upcoming Soyuz docking

MOSCOW - The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) has been elevated by almost 2.5 km for the upcoming docking of a Russian manned spaceship Soyuz, the Russian Mission Control Center (MCC) said Sunday.

The operation was completed successfully, the MCC was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

According to the MCC, the orbit adjustment was initially scheduled for Thursday. However, several minutes before it started, the United States requested to postpone the maneuver.

The adjustment was also expected to test a new algorithm to avoid collisions with space debris.

The Soyuz TMA-07M, scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur space center on Wednesday, will deliver Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and U.S. astronaut Tomas Marshburn to the ISS.

The docking is planned for Friday.