A Russian cargo supply ship failed to reach the International Space Station and fell to Earth on Thursday, December 1. It was filled with 2.5 tons of fuel and supplies. The Russian Progress cargo ship was launched by a Soyuz booster rocket, but a malfunction prevented it from launching into space.

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The cargo ship's debris burned up as it re-entred into the Earth's atmosphere. The Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed that it fell around an isolated region in Siberia.

NASA mission control informed station commander Shane Kimbrough that Russian engineers lost contact with the cargo supply ship. This is the third failure of Progress cargo ships in ISS history. The last ones occurred in 2011 and 2015.

The unmanned Soyuz booster rocket was launched around 9:51 a.m. EST from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Central Asia.  Despite the initial phases of the spaceflight going smooth, the third stage engine exploded before the cargo ship was boosted into lower Earth orbit.

Some six minutes into the launch, and two minutes after this rocket engine shutdown, Roscosmos lost contact with the cargo ship stating that radar stations did not detect cargo vehicle Progress MS-04 headed towards the calculated orbit.

The federal Russian space agency revealed that the accident occurred at 118 miles above a mountain region in Tyva in southern Siberia. Most of the spacecraft fragments reportedly burned up in the atmosphere.

NASA officials announced that the loss of this Russian cargo ship would not affect regular operations at the orbiting space station and the station crew's daily activities.

NASA also said that astronauts and the Russian cosmonauts are safe aboard the space station and that supplies at the ISS are at good levels. Meanwhile, a Japanese HTV cargo ship is bound for the space station next week.