MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian and European specialists have raised the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) using the engines of Europe's first space freighter Jules Verne, Russia's mission control said on Thursday.
"The orbit was adjusted with the help of the engines of the European cargo ship Jules Verne docked with the ISS. In an operation that lasted 1,200 seconds the orbit's altitude was raised by 7 kilometers to about 345 km," mission control said.
The Jules Verne spacecraft was launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket in March from the Kourou space center in French Guiana and docked with the ISS in April.
Named after the famous 19th century French sci-fi writer, the spacecraft will remain docked to the Russian Zvezda module for up to six months before detaching itself and burning up on reentry to Earth's atmosphere in September.
