After a saga of broken promises, a European rover finally has a ride to Mars

In a significant development for space exploration, NASA announced that SpaceX is slated to launch the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars, potentially as early as late 2028. This mission will utilize a Falcon Heavy rocket, launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The backstory of this decision is complex, intertwining aspirations of discovering extraterrestrial life with geopolitical tensions, most notably Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The journey of the Rosalind Franklin mission stretches back nearly 25 years, beginning shortly after NASA successfully landed its first rover on Mars in 1997. The European Space Agency (ESA) initially envisioned sending a mobile robot to the red planet as part of a program called Aurora, aiming for a launch in 2009 using a Soyuz rocket provided by Russia. However, a series of delays and changes altered the course of the mission. Originally a European endeavor, the project evolved into a collaborative effort with the United States following a 2009 agreement between NASA and ESA to jointly explore Mars. Initially, the plan included sending the European rover alongside a US counterpart in 2018, utilizing a landing system based on the innovative 'sky crane' concept developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In addition, a European orbiter was scheduled to launch in 2016 to detect methane in the Martian atmosphere. NASA had committed to launch these critical missions using a pair of United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets. However, in a turn of events, NASA withdrew from its commitments less than three years later due to budgetary challenges, including overruns associated with the James Webb Space Telescope. The ESA, facing its own financial constraints, struggled to cover the costs of the launch and landing systems alone, leaving the future of the Rosalind Franklin mission uncertain until this recent decision by NASA and SpaceX.