A Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218 satellites lifts off from the launch pad at the new Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Uglegorsk, about 200 km from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region on April 28, 2016. (Reuters) (Representational photo)
Russia’s space agency says malfunction has caused an unmanned cargo ship to crash minutes after it blasted off.
LATEST UPDATE: Progress spaceship lost, most pieces burned up in Earth’s atmosphere over Siberia – Roscosmos https://t.co/mIrQCiPEcx
— RT (@RT_com) December 1, 2016
The cargo ship was destroyed about six minutes after the liftoff, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Twitter.
Progress spaceship carried more than 2-1/2 tons of food and supplies and was headed to ISS.
The blast took place at an altitude of about 118 miles (190 km). The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
Russia’s space agency had lost contact with the unmanned cargo ship shortly after it blasted off to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.