Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 35 2009

Mars Express is a space exploration mission to Mars being conducted by the European Space Agency. "Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built. However "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 reach the Martian surface safely, the Orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since 2004. Due to the valuable science return and the highly flexible mission profile, Mars Express has been granted two consecutive mission extensions until (at least) December 2009. (more...)