Russia's Phobos-Grunt mission had been slated to lift off aboard a Zenith rocket in October on a three-year mission to study Phobos and return soil samples to Earth. Yinghuo-1 orbiter was set to be launched with the mission.

But Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, said on the agency's official website Tuesday that the mission will be delayed from October to the next launch window in 2011, in order to enhance the reliability of the project, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Russian scientists need more time to study Phobos' surface and design better facilities to collect soil samples from Phobos, so that the high cost of the mission will not be in vain, Xinhua reported.

The delay has dampened China's first Mars probe plan, though.

"We are sorry to learn about the delay," Wu Ji, director of the Center of Space Science and Applied Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily yesterday.

Wu and his colleagues designed the scientific tasks of the Yinghuo-1 Mars probe, which includes exploring the Martian space environment, and relaying back the first Mars images taken by a Chinese satellite.

"We had looked forward to making some findings through the mission, but it now looks like we have to wait," he said. The two-year delay won't affect the orbiter's scientific tasks, he said.

The delay will also increase costs to China, according to Pang Zhihao, a researcher and the deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly Space International.

For example, tests on the Yinghuo-1 probe's various parts will need to be done again before being launched in 2011, in order to make sure that all electronic components onboard will perform well, he told China Daily.

"The incident has shown the disadvantages of space international cooperation. We have been fully prepared and have completed all tests, but it is now postponed," he said.

Previously, Ye Peijian, chief designer of the nation's first moon probe, had called for the government's approval for an independent Mars probe.

Ye said in March that China would be capable of exploring Mars by 2013 if a proposed space program received immediate government support.

Two large satellite ground-tracking control stations are now under construction for the second stage of China's lunar program, which can enable scientists to track and control a Mars probe.

As long as China develops a more powerful rocket, calculations show China can send a Mars probe into orbit on its own, he said.

But since China lacks experience in exploring as far as Mars and since such a mission usually has huge costs, international cooperation is a good way to carry out China's first Mars probe mission, Pang Zhihao said.

Yinghuo-1, a micro-satellite weighing 110 kg, was expected to lead China further into deep space exploration this year, following Chang'e-1 moon probe's successful project.

Yinghuo-1 was expected to travel 350 million km in 11 months before entering the planet's orbit in September 2010 and circle around it for one year.

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