Damaged Russian space shuttle sinks in the Pacific Ocean

Moscow, Feb. 19, (dpa/GNA) - The damaged Russian space shuttle Progress MS-21 has been brought down in a controlled manner over the Pacific Ocean, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday, according to the Interfax news agency. 

“Today the Progress MS-21 was taken out of orbit, entered the atmosphere and broke up. The unburned elements of the structure fell into a part of the Pacific Ocean where there is no shipping,” it said. 

The Progress cargo shuttle had docked at the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2022. On February 11, 2023, a leak was discovered in the capsule, which was already loaded with waste, resulting in the loss of coolant. 

On Saturday, the shuttle was undocked, turned around and photographed from the outside. No visible damage was found. Nevertheless, a government commission decided to crash the spacecraft as a precaution. 

Russian engineers are currently dealing with another similar problem on the ISS, as a leak was also detected on the Soyuz MS-22 space shuttle in December. 

The MS-22 was supposed to bring ISS crew back to Earth. But cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, now have to wait for the next ship, which is scheduled to launch into space from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in March 2023. 

GNA