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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere will the Out of Control Russian Cargo Spaceship land if attempts to regain control fail?
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/russian-progress-cargo-ship-goes-out-control-after-launch-n349456<snip>
Russia's space agency is scrambling to regain control of a robotic Progress cargo ship that appears to have suffered a serious malfunction shortly after launching into orbit on Tuesday.
Video from the Progress 59 spacecraft, also known as Progress M-27M, showed it in a dizzying spin, with Earth and the sun rapidly coming into and then out of frame. Russian flight controllers abandoned plans to attempt to dock the cargo ship with the International Space Station on Thursday, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said. That docking originally scheduled for Tuesday morning, then pushed to Thursday is now "indefinitely postponed," Navias said.
The problems began shortly after the Progress launched into space atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff occurred at 3:09 a.m. EDT, with the cargo ship packed with just over 3 tons of food, fuel and other supplies.
Russian flight controllers attempted to regain control of Progress 59 as the spacecraft made four orbits around Earth, with no success. Late Tuesday, the spacecraft will make another series of passes over Russian ground stations, and flight controllers will resume their recovery work then, Navias said.
Lancero
(3,015 posts)It's a unmanned cargo shuttle, and they are generally never meant to 'land' after delivery - Just to fall back into the atmosphere and to disintegrate on entry.
The concern over loosing control over it are due to 2 things - One, it hasn't delivered its cargo (So if control can't be reestablished, another cargo shuttle may have to be launched depending upon just how important this delivery was.) and two, its going to a uncontrolled reentry which really doesn't mean much. A controlled entry in this case is more to ensure that even if the craft doesn't fully disintragrate, whatever is left will land in a 'safe' spot. Uncontrolled, they can't ensure a safe landing area for remnants but in all honesty this is a non issue since nothing is likely to survive reentry.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Codeine
(25,586 posts)snooper2
(30,151 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)Steve still has a lot of great work ahead of him here on Earth.