Efforts To Contact The Spacecraft Have Yielded No Results

Russia's space program suffered a setback when the Mars probe it launched November 8th failed to fire a transfer rocket that would boost it out of Earth orbit on its way to Mars. Friday, the European Space Agency said it was calling off efforts to regain control of the spacecraft.

The ESA managed to briefly connect with the Phobos-Grunt probe traveling in a 130-mile-high orbit. But the agency announced on its Twitter feed that " In consultation and agreement with PhobosGrunt mission controllers, ESA engineers will end ESTRACK ground station support today." The agency said it would remain available to assist Roscosmos, which maintains control of the mission, should there be any substantive change in the probe's status.

USA Today reports that, according to Roscosmos, if the spacecraft remains out of contact with ground controllers, it would likely re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime in January. The Russian space agency is still evaluating the situation. The Russian news service RT reports that two objects have "separated" from the spacecraft, and it seems to be falling apart in orbit.

Phobos-Grunt was designed to collect soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos and return them to Earth.

FMI: www.federalspace.ru/?lang=en