The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-26 undocked from the International Space Station (ISS), deorbited and sank 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.”
Progress MS-26 was launched via a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Feb. 15, 2024.
It docked with the station on Feb. 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 Aug. 17 with the Zvezda module of the ISS, following its launch from Baikonur on Aug. 15.
Ukraine downs 30 Russia-launched drones…
Meanwhile, Ukraine has said it downed 30 drones launched overnight by Russia, in continuation of their disastrous four-year war.
Russia- launched 38 Shahed-type drones at Ukraine overnight on Tuesday and the air defense intercepted 30 of them, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.
The projectiles were destroyed over eight regions in southern, northern and central Ukraine, the statement said.
The Russian forces also fired two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles at Ukraine from the Voronezh region, the air force said, without giving further details.
Infrastructure facilities, including a gas pipeline and a hospital, were damaged. One person was injured in the attack in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy.
The Sumy Regional Military Administration said in a statement.
A nationwide air alert was issued in Ukraine on Tuesday morning after a MIG-31 fighter, a carrier of Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles, took off from an airfield in Russia. (Xinhua/NAN)
