Q&A with Michel Denis, ExoMars flight director

Boosted off planet Earth by a Russian Proton rocket, a European-built space probe departed for Mars on Monday, beginning a mission to test future landing technologies and search for methane, a potential signature of microbial life.

China has performed a hover and hazard avoidance test on a model the country’s first Mars rover, while engineers ready the real spacecraft for launch toward the red planet in mid-2020.

Track the progress of the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft and its three-man crew through Tuesday’s countdown, launch and docking with the International Space Station.