The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the suspension of the Russian-European ExoMars mission and the search for alternatives for the launch of four other missions. The reason ? Termination of cooperation with the Russian space agency Roscosmos due to the war in ukraine.
Launch in September
The mission ExoMars planned the September launch of an ESA rover bound for the planet Mars, using a Russian launcher and lander. The board of the European Space Agency has instructed its director to launch a rapid industrial study to relaunch ExoMars and seek alternatives for other missions.
The launches of many ESA missions have so far relied on the use of the Russian Soyuz launcher from the European spaceport of Kourou, in French Guiana. Roscosmos responded to European sanctions, imposed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, by suspending its Soyuz launches from Kourou and recalling its team of around a hundred engineers and technicians.
Planned since 2020
Initially planned for 2020, the launch ofExoMars had been postponed because of the Covid pandemic, to September 2022. It is now more than compromised because of a window of opportunity towards the red planet which only opens… Every two years. According to a millimeter choreography, the ESA rover, Rosalind Franklin, was to be transported by a Proton rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, and to land on Martian soil using the “Kazatchok” lander, also Russian.