Europe’s Mars rover is now unlikely to launch before 2026 after Russia’s war on Ukraine
Europe’s beleaguered ExoMars rover is unlikely to launch before 2026 as the European Space Agency (ESA) ponders a path forward for the mission, including finding a new rocket, replacing Russianbuilt parts in cooperation with NASA or restarting its partnership with Russia in case the country’s war in Ukraine ends soon. ESA representatives outlined their plans for the mission in a press conference on 17 March after officially suspending cooperation with Russia’s space agency Roscosmos as a result of sanctions imposed on Russia by ESA member states.
The ExoMars rover, conceived in 2005, was scheduled to launch to Mars from the Russiacontrolled Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian-built Proton rocket in September. “We have to do detailed studies of what this means and how the rover can arrive on the Mars surface,”
ESA director general Josef Aschbacher said at the briefing. “We have to see what the options are in terms of Europe alone or with partners.” He added that the ESA “was closely working with NASA to identify where NASA could help.”
The space agency didn’t rule out a possible future restart of the cooperation with Russia in case the war in Ukraine ends, an option that would come with the lowest additional price tag for the mission, which has already cost ESA member states over $1.1 billion (£840 million). “The possibility of restarting that cooperation at some future date is available and would be compatible with the launch in 2024,” David Parker, the ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, said at the same press conference. “More radical reconfigurations of the mission would lead to launches in 2026 or 2028.”