NASA has delivered the first braking engines to the European Space Agency (ESA) for the upcoming joint European-American ExoMars mission, which aims to send the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars, European Spaceflight reports.
The publication noted that similar equipment was originally expected to be supplied by Russia, but ESA ended cooperation with the Russian side after February 2022.
The joint European-Russian ExoMars mission was designed to search for signs of extraterrestrial life on Mars both from orbit and on the planet’s surface. The first phase of the program, ExoMars 2016, was launched in 2016.
For the second phase, ExoMars 2022, Russia was to provide a Proton-M launch vehicle, the Kazachok landing platform, and scientific instruments for the Rosalind Franklin rover. The launch of the second stage of the Mars mission had been scheduled for September 2022, but was cancelled by ESA following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
By Jeyhun Aghazada
