Europe suspends rover mission to Mars over Ukraine war

By AP 17 March 2022, 4:45 pm

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File: This photograph taken on February 07, 2019, shows British astronaut Tim Peake posing with a working prototype of the Rosalind Franklin ExoMars Rover following its naming ceremony at the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Stevenage, north of London. (Ben STANSALL / AFP)

PARIS — Europe won’t be attempting to send its first rover to Mars this year because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The European Space Agency confirms it is indefinitely suspending its ExoMars rover mission with partner Roscosmos, Russia’s state space corporation. The ESA had previously said that the mission was “very unlikely” because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The rover’s primary mission was to determine whether Mars ever hosted life. The decision to suspend cooperation with Roscosmos was taken by ESA’s ruling council, at a meeting this week in Paris.

Because of their respective orbits around the Sun, Mars is readily reachable from Earth only every two years. The next launch window for Mars would be 2024. The mission has already been pushed back from 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic and the need for more tests on the spacecraft.