National / World News 5:41 p.m. Sunday, January 15, 2012

Russian space probe crashes into Pacific

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

The Associated Press

MOSCOW — A Russian space probe designed to boost the nation's pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars came down in flames Sunday, showering fragments into the south Pacific west of Chile's coast, officials said.

AP Photo/File FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, the Zenit-2SB rocket with the Phobos-Ground probe blasts off from its launch pad at the Cosmodrome Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Some of the recent failures of Russian spacecraft may have been caused by hostile interference, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said. Popovkin made the comment when asked about the failure of the unmanned Phobos-Ground probe, which was to explore one of the Mars twin moons, Phobos, but became stranded while orbiting Earth after its Nov. 9 launch. The spacecraft is expected to fall to Earth around Jan. 15. ( (AP Photo/File)

Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth's orbit, landed in water 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) west of Wellington Island in Chile's south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said in a statement carried by the country's news agencies.

MORE: http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/russian-space-probe-crashes-1303423.html

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