Russia Expects Phobos-Grunt Reentry About January 15
Russia’s Space and Air Defense Troops are expecting the Phobos-Grunt (Phobos-soil) spacecraft to reenter Earth’s atmosphere around January 15.
Spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency that the date could change, but January 15 is the current estimate. Some fragments are expected to survive reentry and hit the Earth. The exact location of reentry is dependent on many factors and cannot be predicted in advance with any precision.
Russian specialists still have not determined why the spacecraft failed to leave Earth orbit. It was intended to travel to Mars and one of its moons, Phobos, and return a sample of Phobos to Earth. A Chinese Mars orbiter also was supposed to be deployed. Russian attempts, aided by the European Space Agency, to get the spacecraft to respond to signals initially succeeded, but subsequently failed. An interdepartmental commission is scheduled to report its preliminary findings later this month.
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