Putin not planning to discuss Progress contingency in upcoming days - Peskov
MOSCOW. April 30 (Interfax) - A meeting with Federal Space Agency executives is not on the immediate agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"There will be no such meetings in the upcoming days," he told reporters.
Interfax asked whether the chief of state would hear a Roscosmos report about the Progress M-27M resupply ship which had failed to reach the International Space Station (ISS) and began an uncontrolled descent from orbit.
A Soyuz-2.1A launch vehicle lifted Progress M-27M from Baikonur at 10:10 a.m. on Tuesday on what was expected to be a six-hour journey to the ISS.
Yet the Russian Mission Control Center failed to receive telemetry from the Progress shortly after the takeoff, as the rocket placed it in a higher orbit than expected.
The contingency prompted Mission Control Center specialists to consider a two-day approach scheme. Additional tests were run on Wednesday. They showed that some systems and units of the spaceship had failed and propulsion unit pipes were not airtight. Those circumstances made further flight and docking with the ISS impossible.
The Progress is not jeopardizing the ISS because of the significant difference in their orbits. The ship will descend from its orbit and burn in the atmosphere on May 5-7.