Should make for some cool photos! :thumbup:
From ISS On-Orbit Status Report for 08/11/2011.
FOBOS-GRUNT Launch:
If everything goes as planned, Russia will launch its FOBOS-GRUNT (Phobos-Soil) probe to Mars tonight at 7:16pm EST on a Zenit-2SB/Fregat rocket. The Phobos Sample Return Mission PhSRM, which is also carrying a Chinese Mars satellite, Yinghuo-1, a 2nd Chinese experiment, and an experiment of the U.S. Planetary Society, will land on the Martian moon and return a soil sample (~200g) to Earth. It will also study Mars from orbit, including its atmosphere and dust storms, plasma and radiation environment. The return vehicle is scheduled to arrive back on Earth in August 2014. The spacecraft will be inserted into a 207 x 347 km elliptical orbit inclined 51.4 deg. After 2.5 hrs flight (1.7 revs) the main propulsion system will be ignited to transfer the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit of 250 km x 4150 (...4170) km, with a period of 2.2 hrs. After 2.1 hrs (1 revolution), a 2nd engine burn for TMI (Trans-Mars Injection) at 8:04:06pm EST will transfer the spacecraft into an interplanetary Earth-Mars trajectory.
The ISS crew will be able to view PhSRM tonight, starting at ~7:58pm, at a range of 3248 nmi., with the spacecraft and its exhaust plume in sunlight for the entire duration of the viewing opportunity and the ISS in eclipse (darkness). If successful, Russia is back in the business of planetary exploration. Let’s all wish them well! Godspeed, Fobos-Grunt!