Foreign interference from the USA could have been behind the $165 million failure that was the Phobos-Grunt probe to Mars by Russia. This is the opinion of Russian space agency Roscosmos, which is investigating the most recent disaster in what has been a series of “major space mishaps” for the nation.

Phobos-Grunt was launched in November, and came to a sticky end on Sunday when it crashed over the Pacific Ocean. Russia’s allegation? The failure may have been caused by radiation from US radars.

Asked why failures of Russian spacecraft so often occurred over the western hemisphere, Roscosmos agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said, “I do not want to blame anyone, but today there are some very powerful countermeasures that can be used against spacecraft whose use we cannot exclude”.

Controversial. Incidentally, the Phobos-Grunt was also carrying a Chinese satellite that was intended to be released in the Mars orbit before the craft grunted to a halt.

In the past year, three navigation satellites, an advanced military satellite and a telecommunications satellite have been lost by Russia. Oh, and a supply ship bound for the International Space Station, which crashed into Siberia.

[Source: Economic Times]