Yesterday, an unmanned Russian Progress MS-04 cargo spacecraft broke up in the atmosphere and crashed over Siberia while making its way to the ISS.
According to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, the cargo ship was lost at an altitude of 120 miles (190 km) over an unpopulated mountainous region in the Siberian republic of Tuva. It says most of the fragments burnt up upon re-entry, and no reports of injuries have been reported. Early reports suggest that three-stage kerosene-fuelled Soyuz rocket , which blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, experienced a catastrophic problem during the final stage of its ascent.
The unoccupied ship was filled with nearly 5,400 pounds of fuel, food, and equipment destined for the ISS, which is currently home to three astronauts, Peggy Whitson, Thomas Pesquet, and Oleg Novitsky. NASA says the ISS is currently well stocked, and is not concerned for the crew. Roscosmos sends three or four cargo missions each year to re-supply the space station (another launch is scheduled for February 2, 2017). Roscosmos said the loss of the spacecraft will not impact the normal functioning of the ISS, or the crew’s routine operations.
Read more at http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2016/12/russian-cargo-ship-destroyed-en-route-to-the-iss/
