Phobos-Grunt

Phobos-Grunt was the name of ambitious three-year mission to scoop a soil sample from the surface of the Martian moon Phobos. It was launched in November 2011 from the Baikonur launch pad on a Zenit-2SB rocket. The mission Phobos-Grunt was to reach Mars in 2012 touch down on the larger of Mars’ two tiny moons in 2013, collect a sample from the surface and fly back to Earth in 2014. However an engine failed to fire on the probe after it reached Earth’s orbit and communication was lost, leaving it stranded in low Earth orbit.