MOSCOW. July 30 (Interfax-AVN) - A Progress M-49 supply ship loaded with garbage was dumped into a safe area in the Pacific Ocean at 5:25 p.m. Moscow time (1325 GMT) on Friday, said Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin.
The spacecraft hit the water some 3,000 km east of Wellington, New Zealand. The area is located far from navigation routes and is absolutely safe. "Only the high-melting point parts of the spacecraft reach the water's surface, and the majority does not reach Earth and burns in the solid layers of the atmosphere," Lyndin said.
The 9th mission is currently serving on the International Space Station (ISS): Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Fink. The next Progress supply ship will lift off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on August 11, carrying 2.5 tonnes of cargo to the ISS.
Another Progress cargo ship will take off from the Baikonur launch pad on August 11 to carry about 2.5 tonnes of cargo to the ISS.