Fobos-Grunt (, literally "Phobos-Soil") is a sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. Launched on 8 November, 2011, it is in low Earth orbit awaiting resolution of a technical difficulty that has prevented it from leaving Earth orbit.
Lift-off occurred successfully at 20:16 GMT on 8 November 2011 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, but the spacecraft failed to depart Earth orbit shortly afterwards. If it can be rescued, the spacecraft is scheduled to reach Mars' orbit in September 2012 and land on Phobos in February 2013. The return vehicle, carrying up to 200 g of soil fro...