On August 24, 2011 at 13:00 UTC the "Soyuz-U” rocket-carrier was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The rocket was to orbit the "Progress M-12M” unmanned spacecraft to supply the International Space Station.
The spacecraft failed to reach the designated orbit on Wednesday due to a rocket engine failure. The space freighter fell in South Siberia's Altai Republic, Russia after failing to separate from the Soyuz-U rocket, the first loss of the Progress freighter in the history of Russia’s space industry. A rocket engine failure is believed to have caused the accident.
It was the 136th launch of a Progress spacecraft including such series as Progress, Progress M, Progress M1 and Progress M-M. All of the previous 135 space vehicles were orbited.
