Russian Mars-Phobos Probe Spacecraft Tracked Falling Back to Earth

Scientists on the ground are anxiously tracking and trying to predict the re-entry of a Russian Satellite Space Craft currently falling back to Earth.

The Phobos-Ground probe, which was an ambitious mission by the Russians designed to retrieve soil samples from Mars’s moon Phobos. After a successful launch, the space-craft was never able to fire its engines giving it the speed boost needed to rise up from low-Earth orbit and begin its long journey to the red planet.

Instead, the space probe will soon become “space junk debris” entering the Earth’s atmosphere and crashing back to the surface. Prior to re-entry however, the massive space probe is expected to break up into multiple large pieces.

Latest tracking of the Russian satellite falling to earth indicates spash down for most of the debris in the southeast Pacific Ocean Sunday night. There is little threat expected for individuals on the ground.

Realtime tracking of the International Space Station (ISS) and other orbiting satellites is available from NASA at: http://science.nasa.gov/realtime-tracking/.