OTD in Space – March 14: ExoMars Mission Launches to Search for Life on Mars

On March 14, 2016, the European Space Agency's ExoMars spacecraft launched on a mission to search for life on Mars. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com]

The mission consisted of an orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter and a lander called Schiaparelli. The Trace Gas Orbiter would study the atmosphere of Mars while relaying communications between the lander and Earth. The two spacecraft blasted off together on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They spent the next seven months cruising to Mars. When they arrived, Schiaparelli separated from the orbiter and began its descent. But something went wrong when it came in for a controlled landing. Mission control lost contact with the lander and later found out that it had crashed due to a computer glitch. Despite this setback, the ExoMars mission will live on. The orbiter is still working just fine, and an ExoMars rover is scheduled to join the Trace Gas Orbiter on Mars in 2020.