The Phobos-Grunt («Фобос-Грунт») probe was launched on 8/11 at 20:16 GMT and it made it into Earth orbit … but the thrusters that were to send it onto a Mars trajectory failed to fire for as yet-unknown reasons – either due to a software or hardware malfunction – so it is currently stuck in orbit. There are 2 weeks to find a solution, then the launch window closes. If it is a hardware failure the mission is over; if it is software-related the technicians might be able to radio up corrective commands. The mission failure will be a dismal blow to the Russian unmanned space program, of which this is the first probe to be sent up in over 15 years; there likely won’t be another as Russia does not have the will or funding for such programs that the USSR era did.
Reports: NASAspaceflight.com (and forum thread), Orbiter forum thread, RussianSpaceWeb, Space.com.
1 comment:
ESA says they are trying one last time this week to revive it. Lets hope they succeed. I live in Sydney too, I consider myself a Russian Space expert. www.spaceshuttlealmanac.com
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