MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday it had sent a group of experts to search for fragments of the Progress MS-4 space freighter and the Soyuz-U carrier rocket in Russia’s southern Siberian republic of Tyva.

"A group of experts from Roscosmos and space industry companies has arrived in the Republic of Tyva and, after a series of organizational meetings, has started search efforts in the republic in order to locate Progress MS-4 and Soyuz-U fragments that did not burn up in the atmosphere," the space agency’s press service said.

To date, three fragments of the spacecraft have been found and sent to manufacturers for examination.

"Nature conservation officials of the Republic of Tuva confirmed that no environmental damage was done to areas where the fragments were found," Roscosmos said.

The Progress resupply ship was launched last Thursday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz-U carrier rocket. The spacecraft was to deliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), but was lost at an altitude of 190 km above Tyva. Most of its fragments burned up in the dense layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.

The remaining fragments could have fallen in a scarcely populated area 60-80 kilometers west of the city of Kyzyl.