spacetoday.net: ESA ends efforts to contact Phobos-Grunt

Posted: Sat, Dec 3, 2011, 8:35 AM ET (1335 GMT)
Phobos-Grunt illustration (Roscosmos)

The European Space Agency announced Friday it was ending efforts to establish communications with Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft after failing to restore control of the Mars probe. An ESA antenna in Australia had received signals from the spacecraft on November 22, but subsequent efforts from ESA facilities to establish two-way communications with and control of the spacecraft had failed. Contact with the spacecraft was lost shortly after it entered a parking orbit early November 9, and the spacecraft failed to perform engine burns to put it on a Mars-bound trajectory. The spacecraft's orbit is gradually decaying, with a reentry predicted for early next year.