Anatoly Zak advises today in the BBC that the Phobos-Grunt mission [fun vid animation] aims to land on the Martian moon Phobos to collect soil samples and return them to Earth may be delayed for launch next month to sometime in 2011. A final Russian space agency decision is expected next week.
A delay for Phobos-Grunt would also affect China's first Mars probe Yinghuo 1, as the two craft are due to be launched together on the same Zenit rocket. The decision to roll out the vehicle to the Baikonur spaceport would mean a commitment to launch this year, while failure to do so would postpone the mission to 2011, says Zak.
A delay in the Phobos-Grunt mission launch campaign would be unfortunate for the Mars planetary science and sci-fi communities to learn much more about the Martian moons.
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