Cargo spacecraft lost in Pacific Ocean

KOROLEV, Russia, June 16 (UPI) -- A Russian cargo spacecraft disengaged from the International Space Station, left orbit and sank in the Pacific Ocean, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency said.

Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, said in a statement Thursday that the spacecraft Progress M-52, with about 1 ton of waste that had been piling up on the space station over several months, sank Wednesday night.Progress M-52 came down in the Pacific Ocean, 3,500 miles east of Wellington, New Zealand, Roskosmos said.

The Progress M-53 spacecraft is scheduled to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Thursday evening, Itar-Tass reported.

The spacecraft is to deliver fuel, food, water and equipment to the international space station with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and NASA astronaut John Phillips aboard.

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