Russian craft embarks on voyage to Mars moon (Update)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - 16:32
in Astronomy & Space
A Russian probe on Wednesday set off on a three year return mission to Mars that aims to bring the first sample of a Martian moon back to Earth and re-establish Moscow as a power in planetary exploration. The Phobos-Grunt probe blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Zenit-2SB rocket in what Russia hopes will be its first successful planetary mission since the collapse of the Soviet Union.