January 29 


29 January 1989

Scheme of the unrealized active experiments from the board of Fobos 2, as well as the release of a long-lived autonomous station (DAS) and the hopper lander (PrOP-FP) onto the surface of Phobos.
Credit: NPO Lavochkin

On January 27, 1989, Soviet Fobos 2 spacecraft entered orbit around Mars. The probe was to approach to within 50 meters of Phobos' surface and release two landers – one a mobile 'hopper', the other a stationary platform. However, the mission ended prematurely after a malfunction of the on-board computer on March 27, 1989.

Panorama of the surface of Mars from Fobos 2 on March 26, 1989. The elongated horizontal smudge is the shadow of Phobos, traveling in nearly the same orbit as the spacecraft.  
Credit: Don P. Mitchell: http://mentallandscape.com

   Fobos 2 was launched on July 12, 1988. It operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases, gathering data on the Sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. Fobos 2 carried out two en route course corrections on July 21, 1988 and January 23, 1989. One of the two radio transmitters failed, while its Buk computer was acting erratically due to faulty capacitors in the computer’s power supply, a fact that was known before launch.

   At 12:55 UT on January 29, 1989, the spacecraft fired its engine to enter orbit around Mars. Initial orbital parameters were 819 × 81,214 kilometers at 1.5° inclination. In the initial months in orbit around Mars, the spacecraft conducted substantive investigations of the Red Planet and also photographed areas of its surface. During this period, controllers implemented four further orbital corrections in order to put its trajectory on an encounter course with Phobos. The spacecraft also jettisoned its Fregat upper stage (which had fired its engine to enter Mars orbit).

   Fobos 2 took high resolution photos of the moon on 23 February (at 860 kilometers range), 28 February (320 kilometers), and March 25, 1989 (191 kilometers), covering about 80% of its surface. Release of its lander was scheduled for 4–5 April 1989, but on 27 March during a regularly planned communications session at 15:58 UT, there was no word from the spacecraft. A weak signal was received between 17:51 and 18:03 UT, but there was no telemetry information. The nature of the signal indicated that the spacecraft had lost all orientation and was spinning. Future attempts to regain communication were unsuccessful and the mission was declared lost on April 14, 1989. The most probable cause was failure of the power supply for the Buk computer, something that had actually happened earlier in the mission (on January 21, 1989). On this occasion, controllers failed to revive the vehicle.

Phobos global view from Phobos 2. This view of Mars' moon Phobos (which is about 25 kilometers in diameter) was captured by the Fobos 2 mission on February 28, 1989. Fobos 2 took a total of 13 color sets of images of Phobos before contact was lost on March 27, 1989. Credit: Russian Academy of Sciences/Ted Stryk


Phobos over Mars from Fobos 2. The moon Phobos is much darker than bright, dusty Mars, as seen in this image captured by the Fobos 2 spacecraft on March 25, 1989. Credit: Russian Academy of Sciences/Ted Stryk


"Fobos is following Phobos". Painting by Andrei Sokolov and Alexei Leonov from 1988 depicts the planned laser probing of the Martian moon Phobos by a Soviet Fobos spacecraft.


© 2026, Andrew Mirecki


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