MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2019) The Russian-European ExoMars-2020 probe will be launched atop the Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome along the trajectory which runs beyond the territory of China, unlike the ExoMars-2016 mission, a representative of Russian space agency Roscosmos told Sputnik.
"At present, under the Russian-Kazakh contract on leasing the Baikonur site, launches of payloads atop Proton-M carrier rockets are carried out under the ordinary routes with an inclination of either 51.6 degrees or 64.8 degrees. For launching ExoMars-2020 spacecraft into the trajectory of a flight to Mars, partners have agreed upon using the launch route with the inclination of 64.8 degrees," the Roscosmos spokesperson said, referring to the route that runs beyond China's territory.
The agency representative explained that the project participants had initially planned to launch the probe under the same scheme which was used in 2016, however, they had decided to choose the other route due to the complexity of receiving authorizations for the flight over the territories of foreign countries.
ExoMars-2020 is being implemented by Roscosmos in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA).
