Russian Grunt to Fall into the Ocean Sometime Between Saturday and Monday

In a recent Daily Galaxy blog article details the last few moments of the failed Russian Mars Phobos probe and its' projected impact in the Indian Ocean sometime between January 14 and January 16th.

The probe, which was launched on  Nov. 9, was to explore one of Mars’ two moons, Phobos, but became stranded after its  launch, still in Earth orbit, after it failed to respond to engineers in Russia and the European Space Agency, never igniting the stage that was to propel the spacecraft toward its target.

Phobos-Grunt weighs 14.6 tons, which includes 12 tons of highly toxic fuel,  all of which is projected to burn up before impacting the ocean.

Russian Failed Mars Mission Could Mean Charges?

Russia's failed Mars exploratory rover mission failure mean that scientists and engineers behind the Phobos-Grunt mission could face criminal prosecution - This directly from the country's president, Dmitry Medvedev.

Another highly visible failures consists of the botched Russian cargo shipment, intended for the International Space Station, that came crashing to Earth minutes after blastoff back in August.

According to IO9 punishment could take the form of either financial or, disciplinary or even criminal punishment.

It seems that Medvedev's comments were more directed toward Lavochkin, the company that built the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

More at the IO9 article site

NASA delays Hubble telescope repair mission

Wired reports that the shuttle mission to repair the aging Hubble Telescope has been delayed for up to a year. The reason for the delay is that Hubble has stopped sending down data. The failure has been traced to the command and data-handling system for Hubble's science instruments, which means that it is now incapable of capturing images of any kind or transmitting them to Earth.

As disappointing as the delay is, NASA/Hubble controllers say that it could not have come at a better time. Had this failure happened after the repair mission, there would have been now way to repair Hubble as this will be the last mission to the aging craft. First step is for Hubble controllers to switch over to a second control channel and bring Hubble back on line. This should take a couple of days. Continuing with the mission and relying on Hubble's last remaining command channel would severely shorten Hubble's remaining life. Plans are to now replace the command and data-handling system which will guarantee Hubble a 5 to 10 lifespan.

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