ESA coordinates international satellite reentry campaign
An international campaign to assess the imminent atmospheric reentry of Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars craft is being coordinated by experts in ESA's Space Debris Office. Participants include NASA and Roscosmos as part of the 12-member Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. ESA experts are working with international partners in a coordinated prediction campaign focused on Phobos-Grunt, a Russian Mars mission that is expected to largely burn up in Earth's atmosphere in the next few days. Read more
A Russian probe destined for a mission on Mars that went missing shortly after takeoff in November is due to crash land on Earth this weekend. The Phobos-Grunt satellite is expected to fall into the Indian Ocean. Read more
Video of a passage of Phobos-Grunt over France on January 1st 2012, at a distance of 237 km. The satellite is moving from left to right and the Sun is on the right, the consequence being that the solar panels (on the left) do not receive sunlight.