MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - A rover of the ExoMars 2022 mission will be delivered back to Italy after tests in Cannes, the Roscosmos state corporation said.
"After completion of tests in Cannes, the rover will return to the clean rooms of Thales Alenia Space in Turin (Italy) for further functional tests before being sent to Baikonur Cosmodrome," the state corporation said in a statement.
European and Russian experts continue to test the spacecraft in France, Roscosmos said.
"In a special clean chamber of Thales Alenia Space in Cannes (France), the joint efforts of Russian and European specialists ensured the installation of the rover on the landing platform, as well as electrical tests were carried out, including checking the data and power transmission between the platform and the rover," Roscosmos said.
The spacecraft was tested in Italy from April to September 2020. Italian specialists, in particular, carried out air-tightness tests, and also checked the readiness of the rover.
According to earlier reports, the Russian Proton-M rocket, equipped with a Briz booster, with the ExoMars rover will be launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 5:10 p.m. Moscow time on September 22, 2022. The reserve date is October 1, 2022.
The landing of the reentry vehicle on Mars after separation from the cruise stage is due to take place nine months later, at 6:32 p.m. on June 10, 2023.
In March 2020, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos said the launch of ExoMars had been rescheduled from 2020 to 2022 due to the need for more tests of the updated equipment, and also problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
ExoMars is a joint program of the ESA and Roscosmos to study Mars. The main purpose of the project is to look for traces of past and current life on Mars.
ExoMars consists of a European flight module and a Russian reentry vehicle (landing module). The latter comprises the Russian Kazachok landing platform and the European Mars rover Rosalind Franklin.
The first interplanetary ExoMars station was launched on March 14, 2016 with a Proton-M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome under a joint program to study Mars. It successfully reached the planet's orbit on October 19, 2016, but the landing module later crashed while landing on the Meridiani Planum.