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.
