“Full contact with the Progress will most likely not occur, therefore the cargo vessel may be designated as space junk threatening security. There will be no docking with the ISS,” the source said.
Mission Control has not yet officially confirmed the cancellation of the docking.
The source said that the spacecraft would gradually fall into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn, which may take approximately a week.
“The ship may continue flying in an uncontrollable spin for no less than a week, and then enter the atmosphere and burn,” the source added.
Progress took off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 07:10 GMT and was scheduled to dock with the ISS later the same day.
Following liftoff, ground systems were unable to receive the spacecraft’s telemetry, and Mission Control began a 48-hour docking program which failed to bring results.
Earlier on Wednesday carrier rocket expert Igor Afanasyev told RIA Novosti that the incident was the very first emergency situation of the kind to occur with Progress space vessels and there were no ready algorithms in place on how to solve it.
