Out-of-control spacecraft crashes into the Pacific Ocean

folarin okunola

May 11, 2015 2:12 PM

NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos report that Progress 59, which launched on April 27th on a supply mission to the ISS, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 10:04PM ET last Wednesday night.

Progress 59 Spacecraft

The Russian spacecraft that failed to dock at the International Space Station two weeks ago has safely crashed back into the Earth.

NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos report that Progress 59, which launched on April 27 on a supply mission to the ISS, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 10:04PM ET last Wednesday night.

NASA footage shows the Progress 59 spinning uncontrollably in space after it had launched successfully from Kazakhstan.

The US space agency said, in a statement, that the craft was not carrying any critical supplies and that the Russian and American sides of the ISS were "adequately supplied well beyond the next planned resupply flight."

Around a ton of material was expected to have survived the craft’s re-entry into the atmosphere, but what was left of the Progress 59 was not a danger to people on the ground as the craft landed somewhere in the central Pacific.

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