Mars Express
OrbiterOrbiter with a stereo camera and a ground-penetrating radar that probes kilometres below the surface.
- Launch mass
- 1,117 kg
- Dry mass
- 637 kg
- Size
- 1.5 m × 1.8 m
- Power
- Solar
- Built by
- Astrium
- Designator
- 2003-022A
Image: NASA/JPL/Corby Waste · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
- Launched
- 2 Jun 200317:45:26 UTC
- Active for
- 23 years 5 months
- Destinations
- Mars
ESA's first mission to another planet. Its orbiter has studied Mars since 2003, finding water ice at the south pole and signs of liquid water beneath it.
Milestones
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Spacecraft
Active
Beagle 2
LanderBritish-built lander that reached the surface but never made contact. Images taken eleven years later showed that its solar panels had only partly opened.
- Launch mass
- 34 kg
- Size
- 0.5 m × 0.9 m, span 0.9 m
- Power
- Solar
- Built by
- Astrium
- Last contact
- 19 Dec 2003
- End declared
- 6 Feb 2004
Mission details from esa.int.