The European Space Agency reports that it has finally made contact with the Russian Phobos-Grunt space probe. A tracking station in Perth Australia picked up the signal.
Phobos-Grunt has been trapped in Earth orbit since its launch on November 9. The probe couldn’t fire the engine that would take it to Mars.
The probe still has a short window to start its journey, before the alignment of the planets changes, making the distance to the Red Planet to great to cross.
If engineers can keep the line open they may be able to upload software updates and renew their control of the spacecraft. They hope the fault is only software-oriented, and not a hardware issue. (BBC)