Meeting in Paris on 16-17 March, the Governing Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) assessed the situation caused by the war in Ukraine and decided to suspend cooperation with the Russian space agency Roscosmos under the ExoMars program.
“As an intergovernmental organization authorized to develop and implement space programs in full compliance with European values, we deeply regret the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression against Ukraine. Recognizing the impact on space research, ESA fully supports the sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states. The European Space Agency has terminated its cooperation with Roscosmos under the ExoMars program to study the surface of Mars. The head of Roscosmos, Rogozin, said that Russia would build the missile itself and fly there in a few years,” – the organization said in an official press release.
In response, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia will do everything itself and in a few years will implement this mission to Mars.
“This means that in September 2022, the joint Russian-European mission to Mars was canceled. The work of thousands of specialists has been crossed out with a single piece of paper signed by another Euro-bureaucrat. So sorry. Yes, we will lose a few years, but we will repeat our landing module, provide it with the Angara launch vehicle, and conduct this research expedition from the new launch complex of the Vostochny spaceport. “Without any ‘European friends’ with their tails pressed from the American shout,” – he wrote in the Telegram.
The ExoMars program consists of two missions aimed at finding signs of life on the Red Planet. The first, after the launch of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), was launched in the spring of 2016 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Proton-M launch vehicle. The probe successfully collects data. The second, which includes a rover and a ground platform, was scheduled for 2022. The launch was to take place between September 20 and October 1, and the landing was on June 10, 2023. Roscosmos was to provide the Proton-M launch vehicle, the Kozachok landing platform, and scientific instruments for the “Rosalyn Franklin” rover.
