VIDEO: ReutersUS 3 – 11/8/2011 2:37:00 PM – BC-WORLD-NOV08-RUSSIA/FI

Russia says it has successfully launched a space probe on a three year return mission to Mars that aims to bring the first sample of the Martian moon Phobos back to Earth.

Space agency officials said the craft blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Wednesday, just after midnight Moscow time.

The space vehicle is expected to return to Earth with soil samples from Phobos in August of 2014.

Russian project chief Pyotr Merkulov said the flight to Mars had a so- called “astronomic window” when the flight can be carried out with the lowest energy use.