MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's last cargo spaceship with an analogue control system plunged on Sunday into a "spaceship cemetery" in the southern Pacific, the Russian Mission Control said.

"Fragments of the Progress M-67 space freighter with waste material from the International Space Station (ISS) drowned at about 14.20 Moscow time [10.20 GMT]...several thousand kilometers to the east of New Zealand," space officials said.

Progress M-67, which arrived at the ISS on July 29 bringing 2.5 tons of supplies, including fuel, water and various equipment, undocked from the orbital station on September 21.

During its automatic flight, the craft was used as a laboratory to conduct a series of geophysical experiments under the Plasma-Progress program.

Progress-series freighters have been the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet for decades. In addition to their main mission as cargo spacecraft, they are used to adjust the ISS orbit and conduct scientific experiments.

The new generation of Progress vehicles is digitally controlled.

Meanwhile, a docking station at the Zvezda module on the ISS, which has been vacated by the Progress space freighter, is being prepared to receive a Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft with new members of Expedition 21 on October 2.

Russia's Soyuz-FG carrier rocket bearing the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft is due for liftoff from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on September 30.

The Soyuz TMA-16 crew comprises Russian astronaut Maxim Surayev and Jeff Williams from the U.S.

Guy Laliberte, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, will join the mission as a space tourist.