Phobos-Grunt was expected to reach Mars in October. The flight plan called for the spacecraft to jettison its propulsion module, used for trajectory correction maneuvers and to brake into orbit, and release a small Chinese orbiter.

In early 2013, the Russian mother craft was to maneuver itself to a precisely orchestrated landing on Phobos, one of two small martian moons. A half-pound of soil was to be collected and launched back to Earth in 2014 for detailed laboratory analysis.