Doomed Phobos Grunt Probe Crashes Into Pacific Say Russians
By msnbc.com1-15-12MILITARY SPOKESMAN REPORTS PHOBOS-GRUNT RE-ENTRY; NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE MOSCOW - A failed probe that was designed to travel to a moon of Mars but got stuck in Earth orbit has crashed into the Pacific Ocean, Russian officials said Sunday.The unmanned Phobos-Grunt probe was one of the heaviest and most toxic space derelicts ever to crash to Earth, but there were no reports of injury or damage. There's a good chance that no one saw the spacecraft's fiery plunge."Phobos-Grunt fragments have crashed down in the Pacific Ocean," the RIA-Novosti news service quoted Alexei Zolotukhin, a spokesman for Russia's aerospace defense forces, as saying. The debris zone was said to be 775 miles (1,250 kilometers) west of Wellington Island in the South Pacific. Re-entry was estimated to occur at about 12:45 p.m. ET, based on the data received by the Russians.... More See Also:Russia Hopes Nuclear Ship Will Fly Humans to Mars Norway Spiral UFO: Russia Confesses To Missile LaunchUFO Crashes in Russia's Siberia SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE HELP SUPPORT THIS SITE ABOUT DONATIONSGrab this Headline Animator