Russian spacecraft intended to land on the surface of Phobos and return samples of its soil back to Earth. The spacecraft was launched on a two-stage Zenit rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 9 November 2011. Although the spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket, it failed to perform the necessary Earth orbit escape manoeuvres; communications were lost and never retrieved. The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 15 January 2012. Several of its components came under scrutiny as possible culprits for the failure.