June 2nd - on this day in 2003, a Starsem Soyuz FG/Fregat rocket launched ESA - European Space Agency's first planetary mission, Mars Express, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 1,123 kg spacecraft also included the 33 kg Beagle 2 lander. Mars Express's orbital insertion around the red planet occurred on Christmas Day, 2003, with Beagle 2 landing the same day. Contact with Beagle 2 could not be established, so it was assumed the lander crashed. In 2015, however, high-resolution phot

Planet Mars: North Pole Dry Ice & Sand Dunes | Europe's Mars Express FriendsofNASA.org: With its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter captured a region in Planum Boreum at Mars’ north pole on April 14, 2023. Here, frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) covers vast sand dunes. Celebrating over 20 years at Mars! The Mars Express mission was launched on June 2, 2003, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on board a Russian Soyuz rocket with a Fregat upper stage. In a

Planet Mars: Fly across Nili Fossae Region | Europe's Mars Express FriendsofNASA.org: The Martian surface is covered in all manner of scratches and scars. Its many marks include the fingernail scratches of Tantalus Fossae, the colossal canyon system of Valles Marineris, the oddly orderly ridges of Angustus Labyrinthus, and the fascinating features captured in the "cat scratches" of Nili Fossae by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft—celebrating over 20 years at Mars! Nili Fossae c