Missing Russian probe sends signal to Earth

A signal from a stranded Russian space probe feared to have been lost has been received on Earth.

The European Space Agency, which has been helping to try to communicate with the probe, said its tracking facility in the Australian city of Perth established contact with the spacecraft late on Tuesday.

Russian and European space experts will now co-ordinate further attempts to contact the Phobos-Ground probe.

The €115m craft became stranded in orbit after its thrusters failed to fire after the November 9 launch to send it to one of Mars’ two moons, Phobos.

The ESA’s success in picking up a signal from the probe has raised hope that engineers could prevent its uncontrollable plunge to Earth.

If the ESA manages to receive systems data from the craft, that may allow experts to determine the cause of the failure and then try to send commands that could prevent the probe from crashing back to Earth.

Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said it will keep trying until the end of the month to try to fix the probe and steer it to its designated flight path. If it fails, the craft could plummet to Earth some time between late December and late February

The spacecraft weighs 14.6 tons with a highly toxic rocket fuel accounting for most of its weight.

There have been concerns the fuel could freeze and spill on impact, although most experts believe it will probably stay liquid and burn up on re-entry.