The incident with the Progress cargo vessel does not endanger the International Space Station (ISS) or the work of its crew, a senior designer at Russia's Energia space corporation said Wednesday.

The freighter was launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, but failed to dock with the ISS.

"We have analyzed everything that there is on board, and I can say that we have enough stock of everything - the oxygen, fuel, water," First Deputy General Designer Vladimir Soloviev said.

According to Soloviev, who is also the Flight Director of the ISS Russian Segment, it allows the ISS crew to wait until the arrival of the next cargo spacecraft.

He added that debris of the Progress cargo vessel is unlikely to reach the ground after reentering the Earth's atmosphere.

"Our experience shows that the structural elements of the ships do not reach the Earth's surface, we have not registered such cases. They normally burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere," Energia's First Deputy General Designer Vladimir Soloviev stressed.

The designer added that according to the preliminary calculations, the Progress cargo vessel's flight will end on May 5-7.

Earlier in the day, a source in the Russian space industry told RIA Novosti that the Progress has begun a gradual uncontrolled descent from its orbit.

Source: Sputnik News