Did the Soviet rocket hit some space debris?

Another one is coming down!

The Soviets launched a space ship meant to go to a Mars moon, gather some dirt, and send it back to Earth.

It never left orbit. Our orbit. The one around the planet we know as Earth.

As a matter of fact, it will actually be leaving orbit sometime in the next 3 days. It will be crashing back down onto the planet Earth. So once again we go on the "where will it hit?" guessing game. Some reports guess the Atlantic Ocean, others are betting on the Indian Ocean. That sounds familiar. It's good we have so much water here... but the oceans are going to get as polluted with space junk as the space above our heads soon.

So what caused the failure? No one is really sure. Could it be that some of the space junk flying around in orbit hit it? Do people planning to launch space ships have to develop a cushion mechanism for their rockets to get them through the space junk field now? Have we fenced ourselves in?

Update: It hit in the Pacific Ocean, to the west of Chile.