Launch of Mars Express

Mars Express is a European Space Agency mission to Mars, launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It consists of an orbiter and a small lander, Beagle 2, which was released but failed to make contact after its landing, and was found only years later in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter has been successful in mapping the surface in colour and in three dimensions, and its radar instrument has probed beneath the ground, finding signs of ice and possibly liquid water under the south polar cap. It has also studied the atmosphere and reported possible traces of methane. The mission has continued far beyond its planned lifetime and is among the longest-running spacecraft at Mars.

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