The European Space Agency and Russia's equivalent Roscosmos have delayed their second ExoMars mission until 2020 after production problems.
The first ExoMars mission blasted off on March 14 and (despite a small problem along the way) is en route to Mars, carrying an atmosphere-monitoring satellite and a lander. The second mission, containing a Russian-built lander and a rover designed by ESA, was due to take off in 2018 but problems in building the hardware have caused this latest delay.
It looks like 2020 is going to be a busy year for the Red Planet. In addition to ExoMars, NASA's Curiosity 2.0 rover will also be touching down – hopefully in one piece – to explore for signs of life and possible future landing sites. ®