Russian Phobos-Grunt Mission ended in the Pacific ocean

Planetary probe Phobos Grunt credit: Roscosmos

The failed Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt came crashing back to Earth Sunday, January 15 2012
in a death plunge over the Pacific Ocean, according to Russian news reports.
The crash marked a dramatic end to Phobos-Grunt's brief and troubled life. The Probe launched November 8 2011 on a mission to collect soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos and send them back to Earth in a return capsule ("grunt" means "soil" in Russian).
   
Phobos-Grunt's main engines were supposed to fire shortly after liftoff to send the spacecraft on its way to the Red Planet. That never happened, however, and the probe got stuck in Earth orbit.

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