Russia's Mission Control has adjusted the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) by raising it 19.2 kilometers (11.9 miles) to 364.6 km (226.5 miles), a spokesman for the Mission Control said.

Europe's ATV-2 Johannes Kepler, which docked with the ISS on February 24, fired its engines twice on Sunday night for a total of one hour and 16 minutes to move the station to the desired working orbit.

"The adjustment was carried out with the help of thrusters of Europe's ATV-2 Johannes Kepler space freighter," the spokesman said.

The ATV-2 is scheduled to undock from the orbital station on June 21 and burn up as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, disposing of unneeded items from the space station.

The current ISS crew comprises Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA's astronauts Mike Fossum and Ronald Garan, and Japan's astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.

Atlantis' External Tank to Feature Commemorative Logo

Kennedy Space Center FL SPX) Jun 14 – When space shuttle Atlantis launches on the last shuttle mission in July, the external tank, designated ET-138, will be adorned with a colorful design painted on its side.

It is only the second time in 135 missions that an external tank will feature artwork, following ET-122, which flew with shuttle Endeavour in May.

ET-138's 'nose art' is the winning design from the NASA Space Shuttle Program Commemorative Patch contest. The commemorative emblem is painted on a three-foot high by five-foot wide intertank access door near the top of the tank.

It is a logo of the space shuttle surrounded by panels depicting the U.S. flag, 14 stars to commemorate the astronauts lost aboard shuttles Challenger and Columbia, and five panels symbolizing the entire shuttle fleet, including Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis. It is surrounded by a blue circle and contains the inscription, "Space Shuttle Program, 1981-2011," the years the shuttles flew.

The logo was designed by Blake Dumesnil, an engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and was painted on the door by Lockheed Martin graphic artist Jon Irving, who works at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the tanks are built.

Irving hand painted the design on the door at Michoud and it was shipped to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will be installed on the tank before the launch of shuttle Atlantis on the STS-135 mission, scheduled for July 8.

Source: RIA Novosti