It’s officially official for ExoMars: The ESA’s Mars rover mission will not fly this year.
Yesterday, ESA’s member states voted unanimously to suspend all operations with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. In response to heavy sanctions, Roscosmos announced Feb. 26 that it would nix future Soyuz launches from French Guiana and pull staff from the spaceport. Now, ExoMars and several other ESA missions that would have flown on Soyuz are left to find another ride to space.
ExoMars: ESA’s Mars rover mission has been in the works since 2001. The mission consists of two components:
- The Trace Gas Orbiter, which has been orbit
