A source in the Russian space industry says attempts to save a recently launched, unmanned lander that failed to reach orbit on November 9th, have so far been unsuccessful.

The Phobos-Grunt probe was launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, but its engines failed to put it on course for the Red Planet. According to a source in the Russian space industry, the probe might strike Earth by December 3rd, but by that time, if rescue attempts prove fruitful, it may be back in service.

However, citing data from US space surveillance systems, several media outlets reported earlier on Friday that the probe may crash to Earth as early as November 26th.

Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said on Wednesday engineers had two weeks to restart the probe’s booster before its batteries ran out.

Despites the different timelines, many experts agree the mission has already been lost. The project’s failure could influence Russia in different ways. Firstly, development of the probe took ten years and cost more than 64 million US dollars. It would be a huge economical loss if the probe crashed.

On the other hand, the Phobos-Grunt is also carrying China’s first Mars satellite, the Yinghuo-1. If the mission fails, it would be a setback for China’s deep space exploration.

But most of the negativity will be focused on Russia, with this being the country’s first foray into deep space since losing a Mars-bound lander in 1996.

However, according to a source in Russia’s space agency, this potential failure won’t stop the country’s other interplanetary projects, such as launching two vehicles the "Luna-Glob" and "Luna-Resource" in 2015 to explore the moon, and a Venus probe after 2016. Other plans to explore Mars are in the running as well.

Russia is also planning to participate in a European project to explore Jupiter.

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