MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Specialists have arrived at the conclusion that controlled deorbiting of the cargo spacecraft Progress M-27M is impossible, a source in the space rocket industry has told TASS.
"Specialists have agreed that Progress is hopeless. Its controlled deorbiting is impossible," he said.
"Commands were sent many a time. None of them worked," the source said.
Earlier, a source said that three of Wednesday’s six scheduled communication sessions had reached nowhere.
"All of the tree attempts were futile. No radical changes have occurred. Progress remains out of control," he said. "Minimum telemetry data are arriving from the Kvant module. It provides only some general parameters, but they are of little help. The main telemetry unit Blits keeps quiet," the source said.
Progress M-27M blasted off from Baikonur on Tuesday morning. After its separation from the delivery vehicle reports arrived two antennae of the approach and docking system Kurs would not unfold. A short while later it turned out that the spacecraft was in an undesignated orbit and spinning erratically. All attempts to contact the spacecraft have been unsuccessful. According to earlier reports if Progress remains out of control, it may leave its orbit on May 3-4.