HEADS UP

Russian Spacecraft to Crash Saturday

Official blames anti-satellite weapon.

More space debris will likely crash to Earth Saturday, but this time it isn't an ancient satellite: it's a Russian spacecraft that the head of the Russian space agency now claims might have been hit by a space weapon. The spacecraft, designed to explore a moon of Mars, failed to escape orbit and has been hurtling out of control around the Earth since November. Soon—likely Saturday—the 13-ton probe will reenter the atmosphere, but the odds of debris hitting anyone are small. Initially Russia blamed the spacecraft's problems on a malfunctioning navigation computer, and NASA helped the agency try to regain control. But in an interview yesterday, the head of the agency hinted at more nefarious causes: “We don’t want to accuse anybody, but there are very powerful devices that can influence spacecraft now,” he said. “The possibility they were used cannot be ruled out.”