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Phobos 1 and 2 ProbesLaunch Date: 07 July 1988 (Phobos 1) and 12 July 1988 (Phobos 2)
There were little launches after the Viking mission concluded. Meanwhile, the soviet economy was in a bad shape. Facing deficits amounting to billions per year, USSR nevertheless managed to send up two probes, Phobos 1 and 2 to investigate Mars and its satellites, one of which was Phobos. Phobos 1 was launched on July 7, 1988, and Phobos 2 on July 12 that same year. Phobos 1's flight however did not went well. An expected communications session on September 2, 1988, failed to occur as planned and Phobos 1 was lost. Phobos 2 did a little better, getting to within 50m from the surface of Phobos where it released two landers. It managed to transmit TV images to be reviewed by a group of international scientist from USSR, Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, Great Britain and the US before communications failed and Phobos 2 lost on March 27, 1989. Though Phobos 1 and 2 were lost, it was still a success to some degree, as images of Phobos were obtained and reviewed. The Phobos mission however, was the end of a phrase for the IKI space research. In 1991, communism had failed and the USSR was disbanded. Space exploration had entered a new phrase. |
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