Ignominious Splash Ends Phobos-Grunt

Ignominious Splash Ends Phobos-Grunt: Debris Of Failed Russian Mars Probe Now Beneath The Pacific Officials in Russia, US and Europe agree that based on tracking data, it appears the failed Phobos-Grunt Mars probe burned up on re-entry over the Pacific Ocean Sunday afternoon. The BBC reports the spacecraft's last orbit took it over Japan and the Solomon Islands, to the east of Australia and New Zealand. Alexei Zolotukhin of the Russian Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti, "Phobos-Grunt fragments have crashed down in the Pacific Ocean." The official Russian conclusion is that the fragments fell about 1,250 kilometers (777 miles) west of the island of Wellington at about 1745Z.