Russian space freighter does not reach orbit and crashes in Siberia

A Russian space freighter, carrying supplies and equipment for the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station, failed to achieve orbit and burned up in the atmosphere. He eventually crashed in Siberia, told the Russian news agency Interfax.

"The Progress cargo ship, which did not reach orbit, crashed into the territory of the Altai Republic [Russia]," said one local law enforcement officer, quoted by Interfax. Rather, a space industry source said was "an emergency situation" soon after the release of cargo from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan.

When the rocket has 325 / 2 took flight, an automatic shut off the engines due to a malfunction in the engines, told the Space.com Web site Mike Suffredini, manager of the Space Station program at NASA.

The Russian Progress cargo ship carrying three tons of supplies and equipment for the astronauts on board, a Russian national, North American and Japanese.

With the reform of the U.S. space shuttle, the station is dependent on robotic cargo to keep the supply of goods and equipment to the crew. However, since the astronauts still have enough food on board for one year, the most pressing concern is the state of the rocket that launches the Progress capsule, the U-Soiuz.

And until the cause for the failure is found, it is unlikely that the next astronaut to fly to the station, this time in a capsule Soiuz, scheduled for Sept. 22, is authorized to do so.

This was the first malfunction of Progress capsules in the history of the space station program. However, this is the second failure of a Russian rocket in a week. On August 18, a Proton vehicle placed a communications satellite in wrong orbit.

Source publico.pt