With the Progress spacecraft ceasing to exist, the Russian Federal Space Agency will be changing launch schedules, reshuffling dates to facilitate an investigation on the incident.
Progress 59 (also known as Progress M-27M) launched on April 28 to deliver food, equipment and other supplies to the International Space Station. About nine minutes after the spacecraft launched, Roscosmos lost contact. The spacecraft plunged back to Earth a few days later.
While the incident resulted in loss of cargo for the ISS, the space station still has enough supplies, ensuring the well-being of its crew members and the progress of experiments carried out in space through it.
"Both the Russian and [United States Operating Segment] of the station continue to operate normally and are adequately supplied well beyond the next planned resupply flight," said NASA.
Though Roscosmos has confirmed that the Progress M-27M has re-entered the planet's atmosphere, burning up in the process, much like how every Progress spacecraft ends up after a mission, it has not released word on what could have been the problem. The space agency did say that preliminary results of its investigation will be presented no later than May 13.
Russia has seen 62 Progress spacecraft launches, just two of which have been unsuccessful. Even with a success rate like that, the Roscosmos has deemed it necessary to be cautious and delay the launch of the Soyuz TMA-17M, spacecraft which was initially set to launch on May 26. It will now launch in mid-July. According to reports, the manned launch will be done two weeks after another cargo vehicle has been launched, which is set for July 3.
"This approach enables the investigation into the cause of Progress accident launch on April 28, to conduct additional testing of the spacecraft and the booster and to make certain updates are applied, if necessary," said a spokesperson for the Russian space agency.
The next launch of the Progress spacecraft, set for July 3, also reflects the change in schedule as the launch was originally set for Aug. 6. The next Progress cargo will be put together quickly but the rockets to be used in the launch will pass the usual preparations at Baikonur and will be handled by the Progress Rocket and Space Center and RSC Energia.
The Soyuz launch will feature a main crew comprised of Roscosmos' Oleg Kononenko, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kimiya Yui and NASA's Kjell Lindgren. Its back-up crew includes Roscosmos' Yuri Malenchenko, NASA's Tim Kopra and the European Space Agency's Tim Peake.
