LONDON: A malfunctioning Russian cargo spaceship, meant to ferry supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), could re-enter Earth’s atmosphere as soon as this week.
The unmanned Progress spaceship managed to successfully enter orbit after blast-off last week, but Russia has encountered serious issues with the communications and control systems.
The glitches are serious enough that the spacecraft is tumbling back towards Earth, with the craft expected to burn up in the atmosphere – Progress spacecraft aren’t equipped with heat shields for re-entry.
According to Discovery, citing NASA, the doomed craft could have a fiery re-entry this week.
Preliminary findings also suggest that the craft didn’t make a proper separation from its Soyuz rocket.
In fact, the USA’s Joint Space Operations Centre (JSpOC) was tracking a large amount of space debris close to the spacecraft and its booster rocket.
“The JSpOC has observed 44 pieces of debris in the vicinity of the resupply vehicle and its upper stage rocket body; however, it cannot confirm at this time if the debris is from the rocket body or vehicle itself.”
