Russia's space agency said on Saturday its ill-starred Mars probe would crash into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile as the craft is expected to begin its final descent Sunday evening. "The predicted window for the fragments of the Phobos-Grunt to fall to Earth is between January 15 and 16, with the central point on January 15 at 21:51 Moscow time (17:51 GMT)," the Roskosmos agency said in a statement. It published an updated map showing the path of the gradually descending probe, predicting it would fall into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile. The space agency had several times changed its predictions due to factors like the altitude and atmospheric conditions, saying the probe could crash into the Indian Ocean and later estimating it could enter the atmosphere over Argentina and crash into the Atlantic Ocean. In an embarrassing setback, the $165-million probe designed to travel to the Mars moon of Phobos and bring back soil samples, blasted off on November 9 but failed to leave the Earth's orbit. The Russian space agency has said that 20 to 30 fragments weighing a total of no more than 200 kilogrammes were expected to fall to Earth, with the spacecraft's highly toxic fuel burning up on entering the Earth's atmosphere.
GMT 09:14 2017 Wednesday ,18 October
Is facial recognition the stuff of sci-fi? Not in ChinaGMT 08:31 2017 Saturday ,23 September
Vision 2030 will take Saudi Arabia into the futureGMT 20:37 2017 Thursday ,07 September
NASA captures images of strong solar flaresGMT 20:39 2017 Wednesday ,30 August
United Technologies near deal to buy Rockwell Collins: reportGMT 13:41 2017 Saturday ,19 August
Eclipse-chasers trot the globe, addicted to Moon's shadowGMT 17:47 2017 Wednesday ,16 August
NASA: let's say something to Voyager 1 on 40th anniversary of launchGMT 16:41 2017 Friday ,11 August
Asteroid to shave past Earth on Oct 12: ESAGMT 21:32 2017 Tuesday ,18 July
Japanese engineers develop headset-less VR systemMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor