Russia's Phobos-Ground could be downed with US radar

Russia's interplanetary space station Phobos Ground, the fragments of which fell down on Earth on Sunday, could fall a victim to US space radar.

According to experts' estimates, the probe could fall into the zone of action of the radar on the Marshall Islands. The radar was tracing the flight of one of the asteroids when the Russian probe was being launched. Specialists of the interdepartmental commission of Russia's Rostehnologii Corporation (Russian Technologies) believe that this could be possible.

US intentionally killed Phobos-Ground?

The former commander of the army of the missile warning system, retired Lieutenant-General Nikolai Rodionov, previously said that there was a huge radar field in Alaska, Polit.ru reports.

Officials with the interdepartmental commission refused to provide their comments about this version. Independent experts found it difficult to estimate the probability and consequences of any influence, which the radar could show on the Russian space probe.

For the time being, there is no definitive information on to where exactly the fragments of the failed space station hit the surface of the planet. Officials with the Russian Defense Ministry said January 15 that the station crashed in the Pacific Ocean in the area of Wellington Island.

Russia's Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who supervises the defense sector, has taken the investigation of the failure of the Phobos-Ground station under his control. The preliminary results of the investigation are to be presented to the head of Roskosmos Federal Space Agency on January 20. The information is to be exposed to the general public on January 26. On January 30, Popovkin will report the reasons to Rogozin.