PARIS — After more than two months stuck circling in low Earth orbit, Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft ceased to exist on Jan. 15, according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, though details of the unmanned probe’s atmospheric re-entry remain unknown. Russian space and intelligence forces indicated the failed Mars sample-return mission disappeared over the Pacific Ocean at 17:45 GMT on Jan. 15, Roscosmos said in a statement posted on the agency’s website the following day.

After a review of the latest round of tests of the GPS interference potential of LightSquared’s proposed wireless network, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Executive Committee has determined that “both LightSquared’s original and modified [plans] would cause harmful interference to many GPS receivers.”

The FengYun-2F geostationary meteorological satellite launched atop a Long March 3A rocket.

HOUSTON — The International Space Station maneuvered Jan. 13 to avoid an impact threat posed by a 5-in. fragment from a 2009 orbital collision involving U.S. and Russian satellites. The 54-sec. debris avoidance maneuver (DAM) was carried out at 11:10 a.m. EST, using thrusters on the station’s Russian Zvezda service module.

President Obama is asking Congress to let him merge six government agencies dealing with trade and commerce to save money and streamline operations.

PARIS — The Russian space agency Roscosmos says its moribund Phobos-Grunt spacecraft could reenter Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Atlantic Ocean Jan. 15, raining down 20-30 chunks of heat-resistant debris off the coast of Argentina. But the agency’s forecast differs wildly from those published online by satellite-tracking enthusiasts and professional orbital analysts in the U.S. using the same publicly available data to predict points of entry that are literally all over the map.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JAN. 9 - 12, 2012 — American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics 51th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, Tenn. For more information call (703) 264-7622 or go to www.aoaa.org/events

FOR LATER: The 15 remaining RD-25D space shuttle main engines are on the way from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where they will be stored until needed to power the core stage of NASA’s planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS). As many as five of the reusable liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engines will be used on the SLS, now scheduled to make its first flight test late in 2017.