The Progress M-56 cargo ship was carrying old equipment and other garbage from the ISS when it was successfully removed from orbit and sent Earthward, ground control officials at Korolyov outside Moscow told Russian news agencies.

Most of the ship and load burned up as it shot from space into Earth's atmosphere, ground control was quoted as saying.

Remaining fragments fell into deep waters of the central Pacific near Christmas Island, part of the Kiribat republic archipelago, an area Russians dub the "spaceship graveyard."

In 2000 the decomissioned Russian space station Mir was sent to its end in the same location.

The space junk had been loaded aboard the Progress by the ISS' current crew -- NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. Anything that could not fit into the Progress will be hauled off by the US space shuttle, ITAR-TASS reported.

A new Progress cargo ship is due to be launched on October 18, carrying about two and a half tonnes of fuel, heating equipment, food, water, and scientific gear to the ISS, ground control said.

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