Russian space experts are battling to fix a technical failure on board
an interplanetary craft that was heading to the Martian moon Phobos,
amid fears the ship could crash back to Earth without ever reaching its
goal.
It was hailed as Russia’s first interplanetary mission in 15 years.

However, it looks like becoming the fourth unsuccessful attempt by Russian scientists to explore Mars and its moons.
Two automatic stations, Phobos-1 and Phobos-2, were launched in July
1988. However, both failed – one two months after the launch, the other
just after it had started to transmit photo and video footage from
Phobos’ orbit.In 1996, yet another mission to Mars ended with the craft splashing into the Pacific.

When the rocket carrying Phobos-Grunt launched on Wednesday from
Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, hopes were high that the
station would bring back samples from one of Mars’s moons, thereby
advancing our understanding of how the universe evolved. Now, it looks
like those expectations were in vain.The rocket booster performed correctly, taking the craft into its
programmed orbit where the engines of the second stage were supposed to
send the spacecraft on a trajectory to the Red Planet. They never
ignited.Since then, mission control has been frantically trying to work out
what went wrong, and diagnose whether it was a software problem or a
mechanical breakdown.

Predicted date of re-entry: November 26, 2011