MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2023) Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said on Sunday that it and the European Space Agency (ESA) had developed a plan for the mutual return of equipment from the failed ExoMars-2022 mission, with the preparatory work already launched.
"The Roscosmos state corporation and ESA have developed a plan for the mutual return of equipment from the ExoMars-2022 mission," the corporation said in a statement.
Specialists at the Thales Alenia Space facility in Italy's Turin have already begun preparations for the return of the Russian landing module and scientific instruments, the statement read.
Meanwhile, Roscosmos and the Russian academy of Sciences are working on the possibility of Mars exploration, taking into account the groundwork created in the framework of ExoMars, including the possibility of involving foreign partners, the corporation said.
In March 2022, ESA confirmed its compliance with the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia over Ukraine. The agency admitted that the sanctions, which target the Russian economy and technology sector, make the launch of the Russian-European ExoMars mission very unlikely. In June, ESA told Sputnik that talks with Roscosmos on ExoMars had resumed, but later that month Roscosmos said the parties were discussing a joint return of equipment that would have been used in the mission.
The ExoMars mission was originally scheduled to launch in 2018, but was delayed twice � first to 2020 and then to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The launch window for Earth-Mars travel opens every two years.
