An unmanned Russian spacecraft originally bound for the International Space Station will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere after flight controllers lost contact with it, American astronaut Scott Kelly said this Wednesday.

The spacecraft that originally lost contact with flight controllers will now re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in about a week, Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, said Wednesday.

“Roscosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency) announced that the Progress will not be docking and will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere,” Kelly said from the space station.
The Progress resupply vehicle will come off its orbit and will begin its combustion in the atmosphere between May 5 and May 7, according to Roscosmos. The Progress vehicle does not present any danger to the International Space Station due to a significant difference in orbit, Roscosmos added.

According to NASA information on the Progress resupply vehicle: “After the cargo is removed and before the Progress undocks, the crew refills it with trash, unneeded equipment and wastewater, which will burn up with the spacecraft when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere.”

The cargo spacecraft launched successfully early Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

“The spacecraft made another pass over Russian ground stations and continued to experience telemetry problems regarding the deployment of navigational antennas and the pressurization of the manifolds in the propulsion system,” the American space agency said in an update.

“Docking has been called off for the Progress 59 spacecraft,” it said. “Russian flight controllers are continuing to assess the vehicle and what the plan going forward will be. Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.”

Few details have been forthcoming so far from Roscosmos. According to NASA, the cargo ship is carrying more than 3 tons of food, fuel, oxygen, spare parts and scientific experiment hardware for the space station.

But the hitch will not put the six ISS crew members at risk, NASA said.

“The spacecraft was not carrying any supplies critical for the United States Operating Segment (USOS) of the station,” a statement said. “Both the Russian and USOS segments of the station continue to operate normally and are adequately supplied well beyond the next planned resupply flight.”

That next flight, which will be the seventh SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the space station, is not scheduled to take off before June 19, NASA said.