Mystery persists over Russian spacecraft fall site

[January 16, 2012]  MOSCOW (AP) -- The day after it went down, Russian officials say they still have no firm information where a failed Mars moon probe plummeted to Earth.

The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe fell Sunday after being stuck in Earth's orbit for two months.

News agencies had cited Defense Ministry spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin as saying Sunday that fragments of the craft fell in the Pacific Ocean off Chile's coast. But Zolotukhin told The Associated Press Monday that estimate was based on calculations, and no witness reports had been received.

The deputy head of Russia's space agency, Anatoly Shilov, told state news channel Vesti that agency data assumed the craft broke up somewhere over Brazil

Agency representatives said Monday that they had no further information.

[Associated Press]

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