Russia's Progress Cargo Ship Crash
August saw a major setback for Russia's space program when its normally dependable Soyuz rocket failed to launch an unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station, sparking months of delays for crew and cargo deliveries to the orbiting laboratory.
The Soyuz rocket launched on Aug. 24, but its third-stage engine shut down unexpectedly, plunging the rocket and its attached Progress 44 cargo ship back to Earth. The vehicles crashed somewhere in Siberia.
A malfunction in a gas generator inside the third-stage rocket engine was later found to be the cause, and Russia resumed Soyuz rocket launches in the fall.
NEXT: Russian Mars Probe Falling From Space
Russia's Lost Mars Probe Phobos-Grunt
The last high-profile space failure of the year was Russia's beleaguered Phobos-Grunt mission, an ambitious plan to retrieve a sample of Mars' largest moon Phobos and return it to Earth. The 14.5-ton Mars probe launched on Nov. 8 but failed to fire its engine to leave Earth orbit and begin the trip to Mars.
After weeks of trying to salvage the spacecraft, Russian space officials said Phobos-Grunt had missed its window to depart for Mars. The spacecraft, which is also carrying China's first Mars orbiter, is expected to fall back to Earth by early January 2012. [Phobos-Grunt Mars Mission Photos]
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