[FPSPACE] Progress M-60 To Serve Science Before Burning Up In Atmosphere

[LARRY KLAES]

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Progress_M_60_To_Serve_Science_Before_Burning_Up_In_Atmosphere_999.htm

Progress M-60 To Serve Science Before Burning Up In Atmosphere

by Staff Writers

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Sep 18, 2007

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.

Source: RIA Novosti