Reorientation Maneuver for Russian Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

Reorientation Maneuver for Russian Cargo Spacecraft | International Space Station

"Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim: "Last week, Progress 90P undocked from the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Shortly before the undock, the International Space Station performed a reorientation maneuver—specifically, a pitch up by 90 degrees—so that the space vehicle could undock safely and efficiently."

"The 90P vehicle was docked to MRM2, which is oriented zenith (up) in our normal ISS configuration. By pitching the entire space station up by 90 degrees (around its lateral axis), the Progress cargo vehicle was positioned aft (behind) of our velocity vector, enabling a clean, safe undocking corridor and leveraging efficient orbital mechanics for its departure trajectory."

"This safe orbital corridor ensures Progress does not recontact the ISS or re-enter our “keep-out sphere” after it undocks. There are also thermal, power, and visibility considerations that go into planning such a reorientation maneuver."

"I staged a time-lapse facing nadir (down) to Earth to capture the pitch-up reorientation maneuver before undock, then the pitch-down maneuver to return the ISS to its nominal attitude. It’s an opportunity we don’t get very often, so it was cool to see the ISS in this different attitude configuration."

Follow Expedition 73:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy

NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Duration: 46 seconds
Release Date: July 8, 2025

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