The six-member crew aboard the International Space Station has plenty of food and fuel and will not be immediately affected by the crash of a Russian supply ship, Nasa said.

“We have a very good backload of food, fuel and other consumables on board the ISS after the STS-135 shuttle mission,” Nasa spokesman Kelly Humphries said.

The loss of Russia’s unmanned Progress capsule, which crashed into Siberia after an upper stage launch vehicle failure about five minutes after lift-off, will require some changes to the “overall logistic but it should not have an immediate impact on the crew,” he added.

“It’s premature to discuss the possibility of reducing the size of the next crew. I don’t anticipate that.”

The supply ship had been carrying about three tons of supplies towards the orbiting research lab.

The retirement of the US space shuttle programme earlier this year has left Russia as the sole nation capable of toting crew to the ISS aboard its Soyuz space capsules.

Cargo missions can also be sent to the ISS on Japan’s HTV and Europe’s ATV supply ships, and two such missions are scheduled for early next year.

Last month’s final mission by the US shuttle Atlantis, known as STS-135, carried up more than five tons of provisions for the outpost.

“Our Russian colleagues will assess Progress data & determine root cause. Meanwhile, space station operations will continue normally.”

International Space Station programme manager Mike Suffredini told a press conference in Houston that the failed mission was carrying “very few one-of-a-kind items”.