A Russian cargo ship headed for the International Space Station on Thursday failed to reach orbit and burned up in the atmosphere over Siberia.
The Progress 65 spacecraft, which was launched by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver food, equipment, and other supplies to the space station, Space.com reported.
"According to preliminary information, the contingency took place at an altitude of about (118 miles) over remote and unpopulated mountainous area of the Republic of Tyva," Roscomos officials wrote in an update, according to Space.com.
"(Most of the) cargo spacecraft fragments burned in the dense atmosphere," the Russian update added. "The State Commission is conducting analysis of the current contingency. The loss of the cargo ship will not affect the normal operations of the ISS and the life of the station crew."
The Progress 65 mission was the third Russian resupply flight to International Space Station this year and the first of two missions scheduled to launch into space in the first nine days of December, according on a statement on NASASpaceflight.com.
"However, an anomaly during third stage flight resulted in the loss of the mission," the statement said. "Known to Roscosmos as Progress MS-04 and to NASA as Progress 65, the Progress MS-04 mission was supposed to be a logistics and resupply run to the Space Station."
NASA said Progress 65 was not transporting any "critical U.S. supplies" to the space station, which has six astronauts on board, according to Florida Today. The current space station crew includes Americans Shane Kimbrough, commander of the current Expedition 50, and Peggy Whitson.
Orbital ATK recently sent its Cygnus cargo craft to the station, and a Japanese cargo ship is scheduled to launch Dec. 9 to the space station, Florida Today noted. SpaceX has not launched a mission since one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded in September, but plans a flight later this month, wrote Florida Today.
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