(BBC.com) – Russian spacecraft ‘to fall back to Earth on Friday’
A Russian spacecraft that has been out of control since launching last week will fall back to Earth and burn up on Friday, scientists say. The unmanned cargo ship was launched from Kazakhstan last Tuesday, but contact was lost with it soon afterwards.
The spacecraft, carrying three tonnes of equipment, will disintegrate as it enters Earth’s atmosphere. Any fragments to reach Earth should hit the sea and not land.
The Progress M-27M was to deliver food, water, fuel, oxygen and clothing to the crew of six people on the International Space Station, that orbits about 420km (250 miles) above Earth. But after a communications failure, it began spiralling out of control.
Since then, it has been slowly descending, and orbiting Earth in a pattern that takes it over the eastern United States, Colombia, Brazil and Indonesia.
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