MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russian mission control outside the nation's capital has launched an operation to de-orbit and sink the Progress M-53 cargo spacecraft in the Pacific.
"The craft, loaded with the astronauts' waste, used equipment and other rubbish, undocked from the International Space Station at 2:23 p.m. Moscow time (10:23 a.m. GMT)," a mission control official said.