Mars Express

Mars Express is a Mars exploration mission of the European Space Agency and the first planetary mission attempted by the agency.

"Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built.

"Express" also describes the spacecraft's relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years.

Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2, a lander designed to perform exobiology and geochemistry research. Although the lander failed to land safely on the Martian surface, the Orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since Early 2004, namely, high-resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface, radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost, precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition, and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium.

The spacecraft was launched on June 2, 2003 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, using a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. The Mars Express and Fregat booster were initially put into a 200 km Earth parking orbit, then the Fregat was fired again at 19:14 UT to put the spacecraft into a Mars transfer orbit.

The Fregat and Mars Express separated and the solar panels were then deployed and a trajectory correction maneuver was performed on June 4, 2003 to aim Mars Express towards Mars and allow the Fregat booster to coast into interplanetary space.