ESA Cancels ExoMars Mission with Russia

The European Space Agency announced July 12 that it was canceling entirely the joint project it had with Roscosmos for the ExoMars mission in which Russia would have landed a European rover on the surface of Mars. It had previously said that it was postponing the mission because of the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, but now it has canceled it entirely. Whether ESA can continue on its own is questionable, as many of the experiments as well as the rocket to take it to Mars was dependent on Russian cooperation, although ESA director general Josef Ashbacher stated in his tweet announcing the cancellation today, that: “New insights on the way forward with other partners will come at a media briefing on 20 July, details to come.” [https://twitter.com/AschbacherJosef/status/1546899245998948354] At the moment, this indicates a clear split in the cooperation that had gone on for so many years between Roscosmos and ESA. As a result of the hiatus, four other ESA missions have also been put on hold.