Russia crashed its Progress MS-21 space shuttle, which docked with the ISS space station (pictured above) in October, in a controlled manner over the Pacific Ocean. The Russian space agency Roskosmos announced this on Sunday, according to the Interfax news agency.
“Today, Progress MS-21 de-orbited, 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.
Lost coolant due to a leak
The Progress capsule docked with the International Space Station in October 2022. On February 11, a leak was discovered in the capsule, which was already full of debris, leading to the loss of coolant.
On Saturday, the ferry was disconnected from the ISS, rotated and photographed from the outside. No visible damage was found. Nevertheless, a state commission decided to crash the capsule just to be on the safe side.
Russian engineers are currently dealing with another similar problem on the ISS, as a leak was also found in the Soyuz MS-22 capsule in December. It was supposed to bring three astronauts back to Earth.
Astronauts later return to Earth
But cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio now have to wait for the next capsule, which will launch from Baikonur to humanity’s outpost in space in March.
Source: Krone
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