Russian Space Station Cargo Ship Is Said to Be Out of Control

MOSCOW — Top Russian space officials convened on Wednesday afternoon amid reports that they had lost control of an unmanned resupply spacecraft heading to the International Space Station and that the craft was falling to Earth.

According to several reports in the state media, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, was planning to abort its mission to regain control of the Progress M-27M cargo freighter and would allow the craft to run out of fuel and descend into the atmosphere.

While Russia’s aerospace industry has suffered some embarrassments in recent years, in particular the failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission to one of Mars’s moons in 2012, it has been known for reliable flights between the space station and Earth. The resupply mission was seen as routine.

Russia launched the cargo ship aboard a rocket on Tuesday and the problems began almost immediately: Communications with the cargo ship failed and it began spinning uncontrollably, according to reports and footage from a video camera aboard the ship released by NASA.

The ship was supposed to dock with the space station just six hours after liftoff, but the docking was delayed as scientists wrestled for control of the spacecraft.

“We are all worried about the fate of our supply ship,” Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian deputy prime minister who oversees the defense and space industries, wrote on Twitter.

A media officer for Roscosmos said that officials had convened a meeting about the spacecraft and that an official statement would be put out later on Wednesday. Asked about reports that the craft’s orbit was disintegrating, she replied: “For now those are just rumors.”

The craft is carrying three tons of supplies, including fuel and food, for the astronauts aboard the space station.

State news media earlier reported that Russia had also put aboard the cargo ship a Banner of Victory, a copy of the flag raised over the Reichstag building in Berlin, in honor of the 70^{th anniversary of Victory Day. But on Wednesday, Roscosmos announced in a news release that the flag was not on the malfunctioning cargo ship.}

“The Victory Banner is aboard the International Space Station,” the agency said in a news release on Wednesday that did not mention the Progress M-27M. “It was delivered on March 27” aboard another ship, the agency said.

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