Mars Express delayed

Mars Express delayed

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

Mars Express, Europe's first solo mission to the Red Planet, has been postponed by roughly two weeks.

The spacecraft has a narrow launch window

The delay is to carry out extra tests and replace a minor electronic component, says the European Space Agency (Esa).

The spacecraft had been scheduled to blast off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 23 May, hoisted into space by a Soyuz-Fregat launcher and arriving at Mars in the last week of December.

Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express project manager, told BBC News Online: "The launch is rescheduled for no earlier than 6 June."

Mars Express must be sent on its way before 23 June or it will lose the favourable relative position of Mars and Earth. If it misses that window it will have to wait 17 years.

Esa spokesman Franco Bonacina told BBC News Online: "There was a little bit of extra testing to be done; there was some electronic elements that had to be replaced, so that has caused a little bit of rescheduling."

Mars Express will carry the British Beagle 2 lander to the Red Planet

Mr Bonacina was unable to name the component, but said it was a routine and minor item. "Mars Express is basically on schedule," he said.

Once it enters Martian orbit, the European craft will release a British-built lander, Beagle 2, designed to sample the surface and search for signs of life.

The main craft itself will carry seven instruments to image the planet's surface and map its mineralogical make-up and atmospheric system.

The United States is also sending two spacecraft to Mars this year - Mars Explorer Rover A, due for launch on 30 May, and Mars Explorer Rover B, scheduled for 25 June.