The European Space Agency's latest efforts to communicate with Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft remain unsuccessul, but an astrophotographer and expert satellite spotter was able to track down the spacecraft and photograph it a few weeks after it was launched.

The European mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, said earlier commands sent to the spacecraft which were designed to turn on the transmitter onboard have received no response.

The ground station in Maspalomas, Canary Islands, which had been in process of modifications, was to start sending commands to the spacecraft to activate its downlink and send telemetry Thursday, when last modifications to the facility were to be completed.

The ESA station in Perth, Australia, will also send commands during evening passes of Phobos-Grunt in an attempt to activate its thrusters for an orbit-correction maneuver.

Meanwhile, Space.com reported that astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh tracked Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft as it passed over the southern Netherlands on Tuesday and using a 10-inch (25-centimeter) telescope and a video camera, he snapped a series of images at a range of about 170 miles (274 kilometers).

"It was bright in my tracking scope, I think it was clearly visible (to the) naked-eye as well with sun at -6 degrees," Vandebergh told Space.com.

"In the images, considerable detail is visible, and I checked the detail on many frames to know (for) sure it is real detail," Vandebergh added.

The $163 million Phobos-Grunt probe was launched Nov. 8 but got stranded when its thrusters didn't fire to send it to the Red Planet.

Experts say that if the 14-ton probe cannot be revived, its orbit will decay and it will come crashing back into Earth's atmosphere sometime in mid-January.