Fobos-Grunt

Fobos-Grunt was a Russian sample-return probe built to land on Phobos, the larger moon of Mars, collect soil, and bring it back to Earth for laboratory study. Development of the mission was led by NPO Lavochkin, with the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry handling soil sampling and the Space Research Institute (IKI) planning the combined studies of Phobos and Mars. The plan also called for monitoring Martian atmosphere and dust storms and measuring plasma, dust and radiation near Mars. A modified Fregat-SB stage acted as the cruise propulsion module, and the Chinese Yinghuo 1 orbiter was to ride along and separate in Mars orbit. A Zenit-2FG rocket launched the probe from Baikonur on 8 November 2011, but the propulsion module never fired, the probe stayed in low Earth orbit, and it re-entered the atmosphere on 15 January 2012, ending the mission as a loss.