Schiaparelli Lander of ExoMars Mission Lands on Mars - Space Research Institute

The Schiaparelli lander of the joint ExoMars-2016 mission of Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) landed on Mars, an official of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A Russian Proton-M rocket carrier lifted off with the ExoMars’ orbiter and the landing modules from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in March.

"We can say only one thing clearly – the Schiaparelli module is on Mars. Unfortunately, nothing can be said about its condition. The signal was very weak," Vladimir Nazarov, the head of the terrestrial research complexes department, said.

The ExoMars-2016’s main mission is to prove the existence of methane in the planet’s atmosphere, which could lead to the confirmation of the existence of life on Mars.