A Russian Progress spacecraft has crashed in eastern Russia.
A Russian Soyuz-U rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan successfully flew for 325sec before a "violation of propulsion", according to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos). Preliminary reports indicate a premature shutdown of the rocket's third stage RD-0110 engine.
News reports indicate that that the Progress has crashed in sparsely-populated Siberia.
The Progress spacecraft was scheduled to bring 3.5t of supplies to the International Space Station. It is the first launch to the ISS since the Space Shuttle's final flight in July.
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Soyuz has launched more than 1,700 times over its long career, according to Ascend's SpaceTrak, making it the most frequently-used booster system. Soyuz has suffered a total of 88 failures since its first launch in 1957, with only one occurring within the past 10 years.
Source: Flight International
