After a saga of broken promises, a European rover finally has a ride to Mars
Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav NASA confirmed Thursday that SpaceX will launch the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, perhaps as soon as late 2028, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. So why is NASA deciding which rocket will launch a flagship European Mars mission? It’s a long story involving the search for extraterrestrial life, crippling political hatchets, and of all things, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. You can trace the history of Europe’s Rosalind Franklin mission back a nearly a quarter-century. A few years after NASA landed its first rover on Mars in 1997, the European…
