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Russia's defunct cargo spacecraft to leave orbit early morning of May 8 — space agency

The defunct satellite will leave orbit between 00:45 and 06:36 Moscow time

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Russia’s defunct Progress M-27M, abortively launched on April 28, will cease to exist in the small hours of Friday, May 8, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The defunct satellite will leave orbit between 00:45 and 06:36 Moscow time, Roscosmos added.

A more detailed forecast from Roscosmos regarding the time and area of the vehicle’s fall will follow after 17:00 on May 7.

The Russian space agency says the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere. Only some of its fragments may reach the Earth's surface.

Earlier, Russian Academy of Sciences Space Research Institute said it expected Progress to leave the orbit at about 10:00 on May 8 (Moscow time).

According to computations by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the spacecraft will enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 06:32 on Friday.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress cargo vehicle blasted off from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, on April 28. It soon turned out that the craft entered a wrong orbit and communication with it was lost. After several failed attempts to put it under control specialists agreed its docking with the International Space Station was impossible.

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