NASA has reported that an out-of-control space capsule from Russia is expected to enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up next week.
NASA said ground controllers lost contact with the Russian Progress 59 capsule after it was launched Tuesday from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome. Efforts were made to salvage the spacecraft but they were unsuccessful.
The United States Air Force is now monitoring the atmospheric re-entry of the space capsule.
The Russian Progress capsule was scheduled to deliver three tons worth of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) when the mishap occurred.
While the exact details of the technical glitch have not yet been confirmed, NASA stated that the problem happened after the spacecraft disengaged from the third stage of the Soyuz rocket. The glitch prevented flight controllers from finding out if the capsule's launch systems deployed as planned.
"When flight controllers initially could not confirm deployment of the antennas in the minutes following its launch, they selected the backup rendezvous plan of two days and 34 orbits instead of the planned four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous," NASA said.
A Russian mission control spokesperson said that whereas the Progress capsule was able to reach orbit, "the full volume of telemetry (data transmissions) is not being received."
The Progress capsule's cargo includes 1,940 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water, in additio to 3,128 pounds of spare parts, supplies and hardware for scientific experiments.
Earlier this month, the Russian Federal Space Agency announced that the spacecraft would also transport a replica of the flag raised by the Red Army over the Reichstag building in Berlin during the Soviet Union's victory in World War Two.
U.S. Air Force officials said the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) detected 44 pieces of debris near the area where the resupply was supposed to occur, however, they could not confirm whether the debris came from the rocket body or the spacecraft itself.
The JSpOC will continue to monitor the Progress capsule and debris in order to ensure the safety of spaceflight, according to the Air Force.
SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship is set to make the next resupply mission to the ISS on June 19.
