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| ExoMars 2016 liftoff - ESA |
This was obviously in March, but we're five months from the actual encounter with the red planet. I'll keep up with any updates and note progress and hopefully, a successful planetary landing.
The first of two joint European Space Agency (ESA)-Roscosmos missions to Mars has begun a seven-month journey to the Red Planet, where it will address unsolved mysteries of the planet’s atmosphere that could indicate present-day geological — or even biological — activity.
The Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli entry, descent, and landing demonstrator lifted off on a Proton-M rocket operated by Russia’s Roscosmos at 05:31 a.m. EDT (09:31 GMT) March 14 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The payload fairing was released following separation of Proton’s first and second stages. The third stage separated nearly 10 minutes after liftoff.
The Breeze-M upper stage, with ExoMars attached, then completed a series of four burns before the spacecraft was released at 4:13 p.m. EDT (20:13 GMT).
Signals from the spacecraft, received at ESA’s control center in Darmstadt, Germany via the Malindi ground tracking station in Africa at 5:29 p.m. EDT (21:29 GMT), confirmed that the launch was fully successful and the spacecraft is in good health.
The orbiter’s solar wings have also now unfolded and the craft is on its way to Mars.
Astronomy: ExoMars sets off to solve the Red Planet’s mysteries
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