A Russian Cargo Ship Has Exploded In the Atmosphere Whilst en Route to the International Space Station

The unmanned craft was 190km overhead Siberia when the problem arose. Conferring to Russia's space agency Roscosmos: "Routine control systems failed to register the spacecraft in the designated orbit."

Even though there were no persons on board, the Progress MS-04 cargo ship was carrying about 2.4 tonnes of food, equipment and fuel intended to resupply the ISS. Six astronauts, Peggy Whitson, Thomas Pesquet, Oleg Novitsky, Andrey Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov in addition Commander Shane Kimbrough are presently aboard the orbiting space laboratory .

"An anomaly occurred sometime during the third stage operation. As we get updates from Roscosmos, we will provide them. The Expedition 50 crew was informed of the Progress 65 mission’s status," explained NASA.

This impediment won't disrupt their agenda as space agencies keep the station supplied up enough to alleviate for the catastrophe of a resupply mission. The Russian space agency itself directs up three or four resupply missions each year.

"The Expedition 50 crew is safe aboard the station. Consumables aboard the station are at good levels. An H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)-6 from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch to the space station on Friday, Dec. 9," reported NASA.

A Russian state command is at present looking into the issue to determine just what occurred.

In the meantime, the succeeding resupply mission is arranged for February 2, 2017.