China's first Mars mission delayed

China's first Mars probe mission will be delayed because of Russia's decision to postpone the launch of its mission to the Martian moon Phobos from next month to the year 2011.

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.