Russian space officials are still hopeful that the Phobos-Grunt mission could still reach the Martian moon Phobos, even as it said that if the spacecraft can no longer be salvaged, it could come crashing back to earth in two weeks.

On Wednesday the unmanned $170 million Phobos-Ground craft was successfully launched into orbit, propelled off the ground by a Zenit-2 booster rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

After separating from its booster it was supposed to fire its engines twice and head to Mars but neither engine fired so the spacecraft couldn't leave Earth's orbit.

In a AP report, Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said the system that keeps the spacecraft pointed in the right direction may have failed. And rescue efforts were being hampered by a limited earty-to-space communications network.

The Phobos-Grunt mission which aim to bring back soil from the Martian moon, a Chinese mini-satellite was to be released when the spacecraft enters an orbit around Mars on its way to Phobos. The 115-kilogram (250-pound) satellite, Yinghuo-1, will become the first Chinese spacecraft to explore Mars, studying the planet during two years in orbit.

Also with the Russian spacecraft is the $500,000 LIFE project of the Planetary Society of Pasadena, Calif., which brings with it some of the Earth's toughest organisms that can survive extreme temperatures and the vacuum of space in low-Earth orbit
According to Bruce Betts, program director of the Planetary Society, the hope is that this is just a software problem that can be fixed and uploaded to the probe.

The Federal Space Agency and the NASA calculate the probe's orbit and its power sources could allow it to circle the Earth for about two weeks.

"From the orbits we're seeing from the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, it's going to be a couple weeks before it comes in," said NASA chief debris scientist Nicholas Johnson.

The 13.2-metric ton (29,040-pound) spacecraft can be considered as the heaviest interplanetary craft, with fuel accounting for a large share of its weight. It was manufactured by the Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin which specializes in interplanetary vehicles.