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Progress MS-21 space freighter to be deorbited on February 19 — Roscosmos

The spacecraft’s deorbiting, initially scheduled for February 18, was postponed in order to allow experts to study video and photo footage

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The Progress MS-21 space freighter will be deorbited on February 19, Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Corporation said in a statement on Saturday.

"The main operational group of the Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) has decided to deorbit the Progress MS-21 cargo ship on February 19," the statement reads.

"Roscosmos experts expect that the spacecraft’s fragments that will not burn in the atmosphere will fall in a non-navigational area in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean at 06:57 a.m. Moscow time [03:57 GMT]," the corporation added.

The spacecraft’s deorbiting, initially scheduled for February 18, was postponed in order to allow experts to study video and photo footage.

The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station earlier on Saturday. After the undocking, Russian cosmonauts turned the space freighter in teleoperation mode to take photographs of its damaged areas.

A drop in pressure was detected aboard the Progress MS-21 space freighter on February 11. The spacecraft has been isolated from the ISS, and the space station’s crew continued their work as usual. Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov said on February 13 that an emergency commission had been set up to look look into all possible causes of the depressurization.

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