The unmanned cargo ship was launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday, but contact was lost with it soon afterwards.

Russia's space agency says Progress M-27M is now orbiting in an uncontrolled spin.

It cannot reach the ISS and is likely to break up on re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

The craft carried on to a higher orbit after contact was lost.

Igor Komarov, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, said: "The craft's continued flight and its docking with the ISS is not possible."

Two astronauts spending a year on the ISS, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, told the Associated Press news agency that flight controllers had given up hope of controlling Progress again.

Progress is likely to re-enter Earth's atmosphere some time between 5 and 7 May.

Other capsules - including one Progress craft last year - have burned up and disintegrated on re-entering Earth's atmosphere without posing a threat to the planet's population.

-BBC