No European Mars mission this year due to Russia’s war in Ukraine

An artist’s rendition shows the ESA ExoMars robot on Mars (Thiebaut/ESA-AOES medialab via AP)

Europe will no longer be attempting to send its first rover to Mars this year because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And if co-operation on the mission with Roscosmos, Russia’s state space corporation, cannot be resumed then it is likely to be 2026 or 2028 before the ExoMars rover is blasted off towards the red planet, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.