After a saga of broken promises, a European rover finally has a ride to Mars
Europe's first Mars rover mission is now on its fourth rocket: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy.
Signal weather
Rising
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
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 Space Agency came up with a plan to send its own mobile robot to the red planet. The European rover was part of a program named Aurora, and officials hoped to launch it in 2009. Russia would have supplied a Soyuz rocket to send the rover on its way. Read full article Comments
Stay on the signal
Follow After a saga of broken promises, a European rover finally has a ride to Mars
Follow this story beyond a single article: new follow-ups, adjacent sources, and the evolving storyline.
Story map
Understand this topic fast
A quick entry into the story: why it matters now, who is involved, and where to go next for context.
Why it matters now
Topic constellation
Open the live map for this story
See which entities, story threads, sources, and follow-up articles shape this story right now.
Click nodes to continue
Story timeline
Continue with this story
A short sequence of events and follow-up stories to understand the arc quickly.
How reliable this looks
Signal and trust for Ars Technica
This source works at a rapid pace: 100% of recent stories land in the hot window, and 0% carry visible search signal.
Reliability
92
Freshness
100
Sources in storyline
4
Related articles
More stories that share tags, source, or category context.
European civil servants are being forced off WhatsApp
Comments
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
European police email 75,000 people asking them to stop DDoS attacks
Europol coordinated an operation against for-hire distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) services, including the arrest of four people and the takedown of 53 domains.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Prime Video shows “technical difficulties” sign instead of NBA game in overtime
"Am I trippin??" asks LeBron James.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
US jobs too important to risk Chinese car imports, says Ford CEO
China has enough spare capacity to swallow the entire US car market, says Ford's Jim Farley.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
More from Ars Technica
Fresh reporting and follow-up coverage from the same newsroom.
Lucasfilm drops The Mandalorian and Grogu final trailer at CinemaCon
"The old protect the young, and then the young protect the old."
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Intel refreshes non-Ultra Core CPUs with new silicon for the first time
For the first time in a while, the benefits of new Intel tech will trickle down.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
OpenAI starts offering a biology-tuned LLM
GPT-Rosalind is an LLM trained on biology workflows, available in closed access.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
As they got close to the Moon, Artemis II astronauts were eager to land
"If you had given us the keys to the lander, we would have taken it down."
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.