A cargo vessel from the Russian space platform Mir due to be destroyed in March plunged into the Pacific Ocean Monday five days after detaching itself to make way for a fuel delivery ship, media reported.
The engines of the Progress M-43 were shut down at 5:12 am (0212 GMT) causing the ship to fall to earth and burn up, its debris hitting the sea 46 minutes later, television reported the Korolyov mission control centre outside Moscow as saying.
In previous missions, the Progress M-43 delivered materials and fuel to the Mir space station to enable it to elevate its orbit.
Last Wednesday, the cargo vessel detached itself to make way for the Progress M1-5 cargo ship, which on Saturday docked with Mir to deliver 2.7 tonnes of fuel. That fuel will enable the ageing platform to adjust to a lower orbit before re-entering the earth's atmosphere.
The Mir space station is to be brought down some time in early March, less than a month after the 15th anniversary of its launch on February 20, 1986.
Senior space officials will discuss technical proposals from the flight control centre for the downing of Mir some time in the next few days, RIA-Novosti reported.
A March 6 date has provisionally been set but this could be changed in the light of technical data obtained from the space station and to allow for such considerations as atmospheric conditions on the selected day, the agency said.
The decision to destroy Mir follows several accidents in recent years, including a serious fire and a near-fatal collision with a cargo ship in 1997.
Russia has also found that its commitment to the International Space Station has stretched its funding to breaking point, making it unable to finance both space projects.
Mir is due to splash down into the Pacific between New Zealand and Chile.
International space experts have warned however that if anything were to go wrong during the operation, sections that did not burn up in the atmosphere could come down on land.
Several nations, notably Japan, have voiced their concern.
The 135-tonne space station, comprising six modules, is currently orbiting the earth every 90 minutes at a height varying between 313 kilometres and 296 kilometres and at an inclination of 51.66 degrees.
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