MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. The government probe looking into the likely causes behind the loss of the cargo spacecraft Progress M-27M believes that the mishaps occurred in the Soyuz-2.1a rocket, a source in the space rocket industry has said.
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"The inquiry has arrived at the conclusion that the loss of the Progress craft was in no way related to the vehicle itself, but occurred inside the carrier rocket," the source said.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos has refrained from comment.
"Nothing can be said at the moment. All information will be available to the media after May 13, when the probe is through with its work," the space agency told TASS.
The Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying a Progress cargo vehicle with 2.5 tonnes of supplies for the ISS blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhstan on April 28. It soon turned out that the vehicle was in a wrong orbit and not responding to commands from Mission Control. After several attempts at putting it under control specialists had to agree the docking with the ISS was impossible. Earlier, some experts and sources in the industry speculated that the loss of the Progress supply vehicle might have been due to malfunctioning of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket.