00:00 On this day in space.
00:03 On March 14th, 2016, the European Space Agency's ExoMars spacecraft launched on a mission to search for life on Mars.
00:10 The mission consisted of an orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter and a lander called Sheparilli.
00:15 The Trace Gas Orbiter would study the atmosphere of Mars while relaying communications between the lander and Earth.
00:20 The two spacecraft blasted off together on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
00:26 They spent the next seven months cruising to Mars.
00:29 When they arrived, Sheparilli separated from the orbiter and began its descent.
00:33 But something went wrong when it came in for a controlled landing.
00:36 Mission Control lost contact with the lander and later found out that it had crashed due to a computer glitch.
00:42 Despite this setback, the ExoMars mission will live on.
00:45 The orbiter is still working just fine and an ExoMars rover is scheduled to join the Trace Gas Orbiter on Mars in 2020.
00:51 And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:54 (Music)
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