Failed Russian spacecraft has nowhere else to go but down

The Russian Spacecraft that malfunctioned on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) could remain in orbit for a week before finally crashing down onto Earth.

Director of human spaceflight and operation at the European Space Agency, Thomas Reiter, has said that if the Russian engineers cannot regain control of the vessel, it could spiral down to Earth within the next ten days.

The Progress 59, a 7-metre-long vessel, malfunctioned soon after reaching orbit on Tuesday and subsequently went into an uncontrolled spin. Flight controllers have been unable to establish communications with the spacecraft as it drifted over Russian ground stations.

An official statement from the Russian space agency is expected at a later time. One of the officials familiar with the situation told AFP: “It has started descending. It has nowhere else to go. It is clear that absolutely uncontrollable reactions have begun.”

Head of Roscomos, the Russian space agency, Igor Komarov, was quoted as saying: “A safe docking with the ISS is not possible. We are working out different options for a water landing.”

The vessel is used to carry food, water, fuel and other supplies to the ISS. After its been unloaded, it is designed to be jettisoned in a controlled re-entry over the Pacific ocean to ensure that any fragments that do not burn in the atmosphere land in the ocean.

The present concern is that if the spacecraft falls back into the Earth in an uncontrolled path, some of the fragments that don’t burn up may fall on land. However, the danger to people is slim since more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered in water with only 3% of the land being densely populated.

The space agency’s European space operations center in Darmstadt has been instructed to track the space craft so that they can predict when and where the spacecraft will come down if control is never regained.