I don't think atmospheric drag at 400km is large enough to decay the orbit by half the vertical height of the ISS in half a cycle, though. The ISS itself with i

I don't think atmospheric drag at 400km is large enough to decay the orbit by half the vertical height of the ISS in half a cycle, though. The ISS itself with it's comparatively huge surface area does orbital reboosts only about once a month or so.[1] Also, my original comment was quite simplistic - a launch with a negative delta-v with no other course correction would result in an elliptic orbit with the same apogee but a lower perigee (and the other way around with a positive delta-v.) Orbits are tricky that way. [1] https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9087/how-often-does-iss-require-re-boosting-to-higher-orbit https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9087/how-often-doe...