Russia delays ambitious Phobos mission

Phobos-Grunt approaching its target

The Russians have been working on something exciting for more than a decade—and now they’ll have to wait a little bit longer.

The Phobos-Grunt mission will launch in 2011 (not 2009 as originally planned) and, if all goes well, will return rocks and soil from the Martian moon.

The three year mission will also carry a Chinese Mars orbiter (Yinghou-1). China has already announced that its manned space program is aiming for Mars. Maybe their orbiter is part of their preparation for that.