Spektr-R has enjoyed a long lifespan. Russia launched it in 2011, and it was only supposed to serve through 2014. It's been considerably useful for studying radio waves around the universe. Still, losing it would represent a significant setback -- especially for a country that recently lost a rocket. It's also likely to be nerve-wracking for astronomers who dealt with the Hubble Space Telescope's gyroscope failure back in October.

Update 1/13 2:25PM ET: The Spektr-R team failed to regain control and will try again on January 14th.