NEW YORK: An unmanned Russian spaceship loitering in orbit after a failed cargo run to the International Space Station plunged into earth’s atmosphere, the Russian space agency reported.
The capsule, loaded with more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station crew, fell from orbit at 3.04am, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement.
At the time, the Progress-59 spacecraft was flying over the central Pacific Ocean, the statement said.
Most of the spacecraft was expected to burn up during its high-speed descent through the atmosphere, but small pieces of the structure could have survived and splashed down in the ocean.
“Only a few small pieces of structural elements could reach the planet’s surface,” Roscosmos said in a statement − similar to what happens at the end of routine Progress cargo missions.
The freighter was launched on April 28 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, but never made to the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 418 km above the earth. Ground controllers lost contact with the Progress spaceship shortly after it separated from the upper-stage of its Soyuz rocket about nine minutes after launch.
An investigation into the failed mission is under way, Roscosmos said. Russia has flown 62 Progress spacecraft to the station to deliver modules and cargo, two of which have not been successful.
