MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has corrected orbit of the International Space Station by about 4 kilometers (5.6 miles) to prepare for the docking of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft, a Mission Control spokesman said Wednesday.
The Soyuz-FG carrier rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on September 14 to put the Soyuz TMA-9 in orbit.
The spacecraft will carry the 14th ISS crew, consisting of Russia's Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. Michael Lopez-Alegria. Japanese space tourist Daisuke Enomoto failed a medical test, and the Russian Federal Space Agency decided on August 22 to send a U.S. woman of Iranian descent into space.
Tehran-born Anousheh Ansari, who turns 40 next year, will become the first female space tourist.
