The Russian Fobos-Grunt spacecraft, launched aboard a two-stage Zenit-2 rocket on 9 November 2011 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, was planned to travel to the Martian moon Phobos, gather samples, and return to Earth. Instead, the rocket motor failed to ignite, and the probe was stranded in orbit.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the spacecraft re-entered over the southern Pacific ocean around 10:45 AM Phoenix time on Sunday, 15 January (1745 UTC). The site was 775 miles west of Wellington Island off the coast of Southern Chile. There have been no reports of sightings.
