The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-26, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS), deorbited and sunk in the Pacific Ocean, Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, said on Tuesday.

The corporation announced that “today, the Progress MS-26 cargo ship, which spent six months as part of the ISS, deorbited, entered the dense layers of the atmosphere and collapsed.”

It stated that the spacecraft detached from the Service Module Zvezda at 5 a.m. Moscow time (0200 GMT) on Tuesday.

“And at 8:09 a.m. (0509 GMT), its propulsion system was activated to initiate deorbiting, and it burned for over three minutes, and half an hour later, the spacecraft entered the earth’s atmosphere.

“Roscosmos expects the remaining non-combustible elements of the spacecraft to fall at 8.49 a.m. Moscow time (0549 GMT) in a non-navigational area of the Pacific Ocean,” it stated.

Progress MS-26 was launched via a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on February 15, 2024.

It docked with the station on February 17 and has been part of it since then.

During its mission, the spacecraft delivered water, fuel, medical supplies, clothing, food and equipment to the ISS for scientific experiments.

Its propulsion system made six orbital corrections of the ISS.

Meanwhile, Progress MS-28 will dock on August 17 with the Zvezda module of the ISS, following its launch from Baikonur on August 15. 

(Xinhua/NAN)