12 Mar 2020 15:43

Coronavirus among factors prompting postponement of ExoMars mission to 2022 - Roscosmos

MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) - The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) have postponed the launch of the second ExoMars spacecraft from 2020 to 2022, due to the need to conduct more tests and due to the complicated epidemiological situation in Europe, Roscosmos said on Thursday.

"We have made a difficult but well-weighed decision to postpone the launch to 2022. It is driven primarily by the need to maximize the robustness of all ExoMars systems as well as force majeure circumstances related to exacerbation of the epidemiological situation in Europe which left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries. I am confident that the steps that we and our European colleagues are taking to ensure mission success will be justified and will unquestionably bring solely positive results for the mission implementation," Roscosmos quoted its Director General Dmitry Rogozin as saying.

The parties decided to postpone the mission after a joint Roscosmos-ESA project team evaluated all the activities necessary for authorizing the launch, in order to analyze the risks and schedule, Roscosmos said.

"The new schedule foresees a launch between August and September 2022. Celestial mechanics define that only relatively short launch windows (10 days each) every two years exist in which Mars can be reached from Earth. ExoMars will be the first mission to search for signs of life at depths up to two meters below the Martian surface, where biological signatures of life may be uniquely well preserved," it said.

"To date, all flight hardware needed for the launch of ExoMars has been integrated in the spacecraft. The Kazachok landing platform is fully equipped with thirteen scientific instruments, and the Rosalind Franklin rover with its nine instruments recently passed final thermal and vacuum tests in France," Roscosmos said.