Russia's Progress MS-21 cargo ship that was undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and sank in the Pacific was likely damaged by an external impact, Russia's Roskosmos space agency said on February 21.
"Such conclusions are made on the basis of images that show changes on the outer surface of the ship," Roskosmos said on the Telegram messaging platform.
Roskosmos published a photograph that it said showed a hole of around 12 millimeters in a thermal control system's radiator. It said solar panels were also damaged.
Meanwhile, Russia says three astronauts left stranded on the ISS by a leak on their return capsule last year will land back on Earth in a Soyuz MS-23 replacement capsule in September.
Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, and U.S. astronaut Francisco Rubio, who had been due to end their mission in March, were left stuck in space after the cooling system of their Soyuz MS-22 capsule started leaking two months ago.
The Soyuz MS-23 replacement capsule will launch on February 24.
The damaged MS-22 spacecraft is planned to land without a crew in March.
