Russia's failed
Phobos Grunt Mars space probe (German infrared image, right), will soon burn up upon reentry.
BBC article reports,
"Russia's failed Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, is about to fall back to Earth - quite probably on Sunday. The spacecraft has been losing altitude rapidly in recent days and will soon be pulled into the top of the atmosphere where it will be destroyed." The Russian satellite makes third high profile reentry in past four months! Phobos Grunt follows the US
UARS in September and
Space Junk #3 covered German
ROSAT reentry in October. Chicken Little may have been right, "the sky is falling."
It is good to know that Russia is making all attempts since 1960 to study Mars. Of course they have many failed attempts and yet to get the success, but their effort can't be under estimated. The difficult task like this can't be achived in a day. Every failure will teach them a lesson and will provide new ideas. This will help Russia to take a renewed attempt with more sophistication.
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