The European Space Agency ended cooperation with Russia's Roscosmos on the ExoMars rover and surface-platform mission, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher announced on July 12, 2022.
The decision followed the suspension of the partnership in March after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It concerned the ExoMars mission, not a claim that all international cooperation in space had ended.
The mission was intended to send the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars to investigate the planet's environment and search for evidence relevant to past life. Ending the Russian partnership required ESA to reconsider the mission's delivery arrangements.
The Kyiv Independent reported the July announcement; ESA's mission history also records the termination of ESA-Roscosmos cooperation in July 2022.
Read more at Suspilne. Supporting report: kyivindependent.com. ESA mission background.
