Fragments of Phobos Grunt Crash Into The Pacific Ocean

Russia’s 13-ton (11.8-tonne) unmanned Phobos-Grunt interplanetary space probe that was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 9, 2011 has reportedly burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere. According to Russian Air and Space Defence Forces, the spacecraft was destroyed on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 1745 GMT as it made an uncontrolled re-entry and broke up 775 miles (1,250 km) west of Chile in the South Pacific.

Roscosmos predicted that despite the size of the spacecraft, only very small fragments were likely to reach Earth and those have fallen into the Pacific Ocean. Also, the fear that the 8.3 tons (7.5 tonnes) of highly toxic propellant and radioactive cobalt-57 might cause damage on the ground have apparently been put to rest by the break up over an uninhabited sea area.