MOSCOW, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Engines of Russia's Progress MS-08 spacecraft were switched on to perform a deorbit burn, local media reported Thursday.

"The space freighter's engines have been switched on for a retrograde burn as scheduled," TASS news agency quoted a Russian Mission Control Center official as saying.

According to the official, the engines will work for three minutes. Once they are switched off, the spacecraft will begin a reentry maneuver.

At about 5:07 a.m. Moscow time (0207 GMT), the spacecraft's unburned fragments will splash down in a non-navigational area of the Pacific Ocean, said the official.

The Russian cargo spacecraft was launched on Feb. 13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and it successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) two days later.