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Russia’s Progress Cargo Spacecraft ‘Buried’ in Pacific

© NASARussia’s Progress Cargo Spacecraft
Russia’s Progress Cargo Spacecraft - Sputnik International
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The Progress M-17M cargo spacecraft, which undocked from the International Space Station on April 15, was "buried" in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Russia's Mission Control said.

MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Progress M-17M cargo spacecraft, which undocked from the International Space Station on April 15, was "buried" in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Russia's Mission Control said.

“The cargo spacecraft's fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean at 19.02 Moscow time [15.02 GMT],” Mission Control said.

The Progress M-17M arrived at the orbital station on October 31 last year. It was the second spacecraft in the history of the world orbiter’s operation that performed an accelerated docking with the ISS just under six hours after liftoff from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. The first accelerated docking was performed by the M-16M space freighter in August 2012.

The Progress M-17M space freighter undocked from the Zvezda module of the Russian segment on the ISS on April 15 and operated in an autonomous mode in the next six days, conducting a series of scientific experiments under the Radar-Progress project.

The departure of Progress M-17M clears a docking port on the Zvezda module for the next Russian resupply vehicle, Progress M-19M, which will blast off aboard a Soyuz-U carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center on April 24.

With a record of more than 130 launches since 1972, Progress-family freighters remain the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet. In addition to their main mission as cargo spacecraft, they are used to adjust the space station’s orbit and conduct scientific experiments.

 

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