On this day in 2011: A Russian probe meant to bring back Mars moon soil reached orbit, then went silent

Russia launched its Phobos-Grunt probe on November 8, 2011 (November 9 in Moscow), on a mission to land on Mars’s moon Phobos and bring about 7 ounces of soil back to Earth. Two engine burns that were meant to send it toward Mars never happened, and the spacecraft stayed in low Earth orbit. A Russian commission later reported that two channels of the onboard computer rebooted at the same time. The probe fell back to Earth over the Pacific Ocean on January 15, 2012. It was Russia’s first interplanetary mission since Mars 96. Japan’s MMX mission, launched in October 2026, is now attempting a Phobos sample return. Image Credit: Pline, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Svobodat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; United States Strategic Command; ESA; A.I. Generated Visuals Video Credit: Roscosmos TV; JAXA via AP