Danger! Russian Rocket Loses Control, Can Crash Anywhere

The Russian spacecraft that went out of control on Tuesday has already begun an unstoppable descent into Earth’s atmosphere, experts have claimed.

Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, was trying to save the unmanned Progress M-27M spacecraft after a major malfunction caused it to spin out of control.

But an official claimed that the spacecraft had ‘nowhere else to go’ apart from back into Earth’s atmosphere – and an expert told MailOnline: ‘It’s gone.’

A source told AFP: “It has started descending. It has nowhere to go. It is clear that absolutely uncontrollable reactions have begun.”

It emerged on Tuesday that officials were struggling to contact the spacecraft, meaning they could not be sure what the problem was – or how to resolve it.

Progress is not designed to be able to return to Earth, so if it does re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, it’s likely most of it would burn up during the intense heat of re-entry as it lacks a heat shield.

An expert told MailOnline it was unresponsive to commands, most of its sensors had failed and its fuel was heavily depleted.

There also seems to be a debris cloud in its vicinity, possibly from an explosion. All the signs indicate that there will be no chance of recovering it.

Current theories as to what happened include a collision with the third stage of the rocket, or an explosion on Progress itself.

It is expected to begin an uncontrolled re-entry in days.

The cargo spacecraft was due to dock with the ISS six hours after taking off from Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 8:09am BST (3:09am EDT), bringing 2.5 tonness of supplies including food.

But shortly after launching, an unknown glitch caused the spacecraft to begin spinning wildly out of control, as seen in dramatic footage that showed Earth rotating past the camera.

Flight controllers were unable to receive data from the spacecraft, which appeared to have entered the wrong orbit.

While Russia’s Mission Control has failed to stabilise the ship so far, it said it had not yet given up on saving the unmanned spacecraft.

Sergei Talalasov, Mission Control spokesman, told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that flight controllers were still trying to restore communication with the Progress.

“Specialists have recognised that Progress is hopeless. Controlled de-orbiting is impossible,” another source said.

“There have been no improvements,” a mission control spokesman told AFP.

Earlier a Russian mission control source said: “Only a miracle can save the spacecraft.”

‘We have scheduled two more communication sessions to soothe our conscience,’ said the official, but hopes are virtually zero of salvaging the craft which contained supplied for the International Space Station.