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" Early this morning, Mission Control Moscow lost contact with a Progress 44 spacecraft loaded on a Soyuz U rocket 5 minutes after it launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is believed to have crashed in the Altai region of southern Russia.  The launch was intended to carry an unmanned Russian cargo ship up to the International Space Station, and its failure comes just after the final mission of the space shuttle, which left Russia&amp;#039;s launches as the only way to reach the ISS. But, NASA officials assured reporters today, the ISS and the six astronauts onboard are in no immediate danger. &amp;quot;Given the logistic situation on ISS, and particularly because we are at a higher elevation and a lower drag, we are in a good position to withstand this,&amp;quot; NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini says. &amp;quot;And, in fact, we can go several months without a resupply vehicle if that becomes necessary.&amp;quot; Suffredini says that Progress 44 was not loaded with any irreplaceable parts when it crashed this morning. &amp;quot;Of the 2.9 metric tons that were on the Progress, almost 1.3 metric tons were dry cargo and the remainder was the water, fuel and gas,&amp;quot; he says. NASA doesn&amp;#039;t have an exact length of time specified that an ISS crew could last without a new supply ship, but the astronauts could take measures to extend that time in an emergency. &amp;quot;There are things we can do to extend how long we operate on orbit,&amp;quot; Suffredini says. &amp;quot;We can reduce nominal food consumption. We haven&amp;#039;t done that math yet.&amp;quot; Actually, he says, food and water are not the limiting factors on how long the crew can operate. &amp;quot;Interestingly enough, it&amp;#039;s probably potty parts. We have inserts and consumables that need to be changed out regularly as the crew uses the potty,&amp;quot; he says.  The astronauts may be in no added danger, but the crash timing was discouraging. This was the first launch of an ISS resupply ship since the space shuttle took its final flight in July, and it came six days after another Russian spacecraft, the communications satellite AM4, was lost during its launch. The AM4 was on top of a Proton rocket, a different booster model than the one used for the Progress 44. However, Suffredini says, the end of the space shuttle program doesn&amp;#039;t really change the current situation. &amp;quot;To be perfectly honest with you, right now, even if we had a shuttle I wouldn&amp;#039;t be setting it up to try and hurry up and go fly. Logistically we are in really good shape, and we leave a service vehicle [on the ISS] for rescue anyway,&amp;quot; he says. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a6966/russian-cargo-ship-bound-for-international-space-station-crashes/>