Russian spacecraft fails after launch

MOSCOW — An unmanned Russian cargo spaceship heading to the International Space Station broke up Thursday in the atmosphere over Siberia, the Russian space agency said.

The Progress MS-04 cargo craft broke up at an altitude of 118 miles over the remote Russian Tuva region in Siberia that borders Mongolia, Roscosmos said in a statement. It said most of spaceship’s debris burned up as it entered the atmosphere but some fell to earth over what it called an uninhabited area.

Witnesses reported seeing a flash of light and hearing a loud thud west of the regional capital, Kyzyl, more than 2,200 miles east of Moscow, the Tuva government was quoted as saying late Thursday by the Interfax news agency.

The Progress cargo ship had lifted off as scheduled at 8:51 p.m. from Russia’s space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to deliver about 2.8 tons of fuel, water, food and other supplies. It was to dock with the space station Saturday.

Roscosmos said the craft was operating normally before it stopped transmitting data 383 seconds after the launch. The Russian space agency would not describe the malfunction, saying its experts were looking into it.