Anything in orbit – especially big anythings – eventually fall back to Earth if nothing is done about it. Old satellites, even entire space stations, have succumbed to gravity and the drag from the very (very) thin atmosphere at 200 km above Earth’s surface.
If the International Space Station were left to its own devices, it too would eventually be dragged down.
But every once in a while, she gets a boost up. This time it was from the European Space Agency’s Jules Verne.
From the ESA site:
ESA’s Jules Verne ATV was used for the first time early this morning to raise the orbit of the International Space Station. A 740-second burn of the Automated Transfer Vehicle’s main engines successfully lifted the altitude of the 280-tonne Station by around 4.5 km to a height of 342 km above the Earth’s surface.
There’s a cool animation of the event, over there too.
