|
This was the first loss of a Progress M-12M
space freighter ever in Russia's space history,
RIA Novosti news agency reported adding that Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin had asked the state-run
space industry to examine and tighten controls
over various procedures while the Russian space
agency Roscosmos said it would set up a commission
for quality control in the space industry.
The spacecraft was carrying 2.7 tonnes of food,
medical supplies and other items to the ISS where
a -man crew was ready to accept the supplies,
last ferried by US Space Shuttle Atlantis.
The US has scrapped the Shuttle programme and
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
is paying about $ 1 billion to Russia to ferry
supplies to the ISS over the nexct four years.
But Roscosmos said that while it inquired into
the mishap, there was no shortage of food on ISS
as the supplies there were more than adequate.
The six astronauts on board the ISS at present
include Russians Andrei Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyayev
and Sergei Volkov, US NASA's Ronald Garan and
Michael Fossum, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi
Furukawa.
Roscosmos said that the third stage of the Soyuz-U
rocket failed to separate from the spacecraft,
leading to its crash back on earth in southern
Siberia.
NASA sources in the US said they were examining
the implications of the crash.
|
