Interplanetary station Mars Express to be launched for Mars from Russian space port

The interplanetary automatic space station Mars Express of the European Space Agency /ESA/ is planned to be launched for Mars on Monday, June 2nd at about 22:00 /Moscow time/ from the Russian space port Baikonur, situated in Kazakhstan. This was told to RIA Novosti by Rosaviakosmos.

The process of putting the station on its flight route will be performed by Russian space carrier Soyuz-FG and Fregat booster.

The interplanetary station Mars Express will near the red planet by the end of the current year and will launch to the planet Beagle-2 probe. The lander will perform research works concerning the planet's layers and atmosphere, Rosaviakosmos informed.

As it was also noted, the Institute of the Space Exploration of the Russian Academy of Sciences participates in the project.

The ESA spent on the two-year project some 300 mln of euros.

"The interplanetary space station Mars Express will be launched on the day, when the Baikonur space port marks its 48th anniversary," Rosaviakosmos disclosed.