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Progress M-60 to serve science before burning up in atmosphere

RIA Novosti

17/09/2007 13:13 MOSCOW, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Progress M-60 cargo spacecraft will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday and spend several days engaged in research, a mission control official said Monday.

The freighter will spend five days in independent flight before leaving orbit and starting a fiery decent through the Earth's atmosphere.

"The Progress M-60 spacecraft will be undocked from the ISS at 4:37 a.m. Moscow time (0:37 a.m. GMT) on September 19, but will not leave orbit immediately, and will become a temporary research lab," the official said.

The spacecraft, which arrived at the ISS in May, will be used as part of a five-day experiment to study the behavior of plasma particles in the exhaust from the ship's engines at various stages of flight.

The parts of the vehicle that do not completely burn up during the decent will sink in the Pacific Ocean on September 25 in the so-called "spaceship cemetery" not far from Christmas Island, where the Mir station was "buried" in 2000.