MOSCOW — The defective Mars probe Fobos- Grunt fell into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Russian space-agency officials said.
Russian space experts, monitoring the probe’s descent, kept adjusting its predicted trajectory, calculating that chances were very slim of it hitting an inhabited area. At one point, it was expected to land to the west of the Argentinian city of Rosario.
The Fobos-Grunt probe had circled Earth in a decaying orbit, refusing to respond to ground commands since mid-December. Engines that were to propel it to Mars failed to ignite after its launch Nov. 9.
More than 80 percent of the spaceship’s mass was rocket fuel, which was expected to burn up as it passed through the Earth’s atmosphere, but officials at national space agency Rocosmos had said 20 to 30 pieces of the probe could survive re-entry.
The $150 million Fobos-Grunt project had been intended to boost the prestige of the Russian space program, 15 years after the country’s last interplanetary mission.
