Paris, March 18 (EIRNS) – As feared, the European Space Agency has formally halted plans to launch its ExoMars mission on a Russian rocket in September in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The ESA Council, at the conclusion of its meeting March 17, unanimously voted to suspend cooperation with Russia on the ExoMars mission, citing “the present impossibility of carrying out the ongoing cooperation with Roscosmos,” according to an ESA statement. Already on Feb. 28, ESA announced it was “very unlikely” it would go forward with the late September launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
