ISS Cargo Spacecraft To Burn Up In Atmosphere

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An unmanned Russian spacecraft which spun out of control on a mission to resupply the International Space Station is expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere on Friday.

The Progress 59 capsule blasted off aboard a Soyuz rocket in Kazakhstan on 28 April, loaded with food, fuel and other supplies.

Flight controllers lost contact with the craft shortly after it reached orbit and tracking radars later showed that it was descending towards Earth.

The US Air Force's Space-Track.org website shows the capsule will plunge back into the atmosphere around 9am GMT on Friday.

The capsule and its cargo are expected to burn up in the atmosphere. Any remaining debris is likely to land in the ocean.

"Only a few small pieces of structural elements could reach the planet's surface," the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement.

The cause of the failure is under investigation, with the preliminary results of Roscosmos' probe due to be released on 13 May.

Other space debris has tumbled safely to Earth in the past, including the US Skylab space station in 1979.

Another Russian Progress cargo ship was lost during a launch accident in 2011.

NASA said the latest mission failure will not endanger the six crew currently living on the ISS.

The space station has enough food for four months and fuel for more than a year.

The ISS is a multinational $100bn (£65bn) project - about the same size as a five-bedroom house - that currently hosts two Americans, one Italian, two Russians and an astronaut from Ukraine.