Russia's
Roscosmos space agency is scrambling to regain control of the Progress M-27M
vessel, currently unresponsive in earth's orbit. It could take over a week for
it to tumble into the atmosphere, probably burning up.
Deutsche Welle, 29 April 2015
Officially,
Russian authorities are yet to give up hope of regaining control over the unmanned
Progress M-27M, designated by NASA as Progress 59. Contact was lost with the
ship - originally scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on
Thursday, April 30 - soon after its launch on Tuesday. The launch went off
without a hitch.
News agency
AFP quoted a Russian official familiar with the situation, who declined to be
named, as saying that mission control had lost genuine hope of re-establishing
communication with the ship.
"It
has started descending. It has nowhere else to go," the official was
quoted as saying. He added that it was clear that "uncontrollable
reactions have begun," saying that two more planned attempts to restore
contact would be undergone "to soothe our conscience."
Progress is
currently traveling at 4.64 miles per second (nearly 17,000mph, more than
28,500km/h) and spinning out of control, rotating a full 360 degrees every five
seconds.
Bad thing to see out the spaceship window https://t.co/tIIFAEXe4W Russian unmanned Progress cargo ship tumbling. Ground control attempt soon
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) 28 april 2015
It could
take between seven and 10 days to tumble back towards the earth.
Low odds of
damage below
Even though
the craft appears to be on an uncontrolled collision course with the earth
below, any danger to people on the ground is negligible: most, perhaps all, of
the vessel should burn up during its uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere;
should any parts make it down to the planet's surface, then roughly two-thirds
of the earth's land mass is water, and built-up urban areas comprise less than
five percent of the actual land.
Some info/context (in picture format) re the Russian Progress 59 unmanned cargo craft 'hurtling towards earth' http://t.co/WcbdiblRWf
— Tim Smith (@GasheadAu) 29 april 2015
The vessel
had been set to dock with the ISS on April 30, bringing cargo for the crew of
six currently aboard. NASA said that the missed delivery would pose no danger
to the astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS.
The
Progress vessel was carrying "1,940 pounds (880 kilos) of propellant, 110
pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water, and 3,128 pounds of spare parts,
supplies and scientific experiment hardware," bound for the International
Space Station, NASA said.
It was also
carrying a copy of the Soviet Victory Banner flag, the red flag three Red Army
soldiers raised above the Reichstag building in Berlin on May 1, 1945. The
Russians aboard the ISS were scheduled to wave the flag as a greeting to those
on the ground on the May 9 Russian commemorations of Germany's capitulation at
the end of the World War II, 70 years ago.
The next
cargo delivery, by private company SpaceX, is currently scheduled for June 19.
msh/lw (AFP, AP, dpa)
No comments:
Post a Comment