Take a look back at the fiery blastoff of a Russian Proton rocket Monday with the ExoMars 2016 mission to examine the red planet’s atmosphere and test new European entry, descent and landing technologies.
The 191-foot-tall (58-meter) rocket took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0931:42 GMT (5:31:42 a.m. EDT) Monday with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander.
Nearly 11 hours later, the rocket’s Breeze M upper stage deployed the ExoMars orbiter on a trajectory toward Mars after a series of maneuvers to build up enough energy to escape Earth’s gravity.
The ExoMars mission will arrive at Mars on Oct. 19, making it the European Space Agency’s second probe to explore the red planet.
Russia launched a Progress resupply mission Tuesday heading for the International Space Station with more than 6,000 pounds of fuel, supplies and experiments to support the lab’s six-person crew, and the automated cargo craft sailed to a smooth link-up with the complex less than six hours later.
Russian officials postponed the planned launch of a Proton rocket with an X-ray astronomy satellite Friday until no earlier than July 12 resolve a problem with an inadvertently drained battery on the vehicle.
A new $3 billion cosmodrome nestled in the remote taiga wilderness of Russia’s Far East, a sprawling, sparkling facility constructed at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, will host its first rocket launch early Wednesday.
