The World - News from Sept. 23, 1988

Soviet scientists have virtually no chance of saving the unmanned space probe Phobos 1, which lost contact with Earth two weeks ago while en route to Mars, Roald Sagdeev, director of the Cosmic Research Institute in Moscow, said. “Hopes are less than slim” of restoring contact with the probe, launched July 7, because its antennae are no longer pointing toward Earth while its solar-powered batteries are thought to have only a few days’ energy left, Sagdeev said. Soviet scientists believe that Phobos 1 changed its position after one of them erred in a routine maneuver.