Debris of used spacecraft sinks in south of Pacific as planned

The craft debris sank at about 14:22 Moscow time at a depth of 4,000 m several thousands of kilometres east of New Zealand, far from shipping routes, the Mission Control Centre's source told Itar-Tass.

The Progress M-11M engines were started at 13:34 Moscow time on Thursday at the command of the on-board computer. The spacecraft was on an independent flight for nine days. The engines worked for braking, and the spacecraft began to descend from the orbit. The debris of the craft with waste remains sank in the Pacific at about 14:22 Moscow time, a MCC source said.

The Progress was undocked from the ISS on August 23 and was put into a lower orbit. Three sessions of a geophysical experiment Radar-Progress were conducted during the flight with the aim to study, with the use of ground observation devices, reflecting characteristics of plasma heterogeneities generated in the ionosphere when spacecraft engines worked. The experiment results were recorded with the special ground radar belonging to the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Irkutsk Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass.

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