Space: Do You Read Me, Phobos?

Suddenly, the beeps stopped coming. Soviet scientists last week lost track of one of their nation’s most highly touted space projects: Phobos 2, an unmanned craft launched last July to dispatch two landing probes onto the Martian moon Phobos. Repeated attempts to re-establish contact were fruitless. A companion vessel had been lost in space last August. The two spacecraft were part of the longtime Soviet push to explore Mars, an effort that Moscow has several times invited the U.S. to join. Although Phobos 2 had managed to send back information on the Martian atmosphere, magnetic field and environment, some U.S. analysts believe the mishaps in the $500 million project raise questions about quality assurance and control in Soviet flight preparations. But Frank McDonald, associate director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, warns against using the episode to judge Moscow’s competence in space. Says McDonald: “They have demonstrated again and again a very sophisticated capability.”