Russian cargo spacecraft ended its existence in the Pacific

Moscow, Jun 1 (Prensa Latina) The Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) reported that the Progress MS-18 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and sank in a non-navigable area of the Pacific Ocean as planned.

June 1, 2022
10:13

Roscosmos explained on its Telegran channel that at 2:11 p.m. local time, the vehicle’s engine fired up and worked for four minutes to descend from orbit prior to the end of the life of the craft.

“The fragments that failed to disintegrate fell into a spacecraft graveyard in a non-navigable area of the southern region of the Pacific Ocean,” Roscosmos said.

The Progress MS-20 spacecraft, scheduled to be launched and dock on June 3rd, will take the place of its predecessor from now on.

The Russian agency noted that the Progress MS-18 engines were used for nine ISS orbit corrections, three of them to avoid space debris.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemiev, aboard the space station, said earlier that some 1.3 tons of waste and used equipment were removed from the ISS on the Progress MS-18, the TASS news agency reported.

He commented that the vehicle was loaded to the maximum because no spacecraft of this type will be sunk again anytime soon.

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