30 Jun 2016

Refinancing of the mission has been unanimously approved by the ESA Council. During the Ministerial meeting in December, the new allocation of funding will be discussed

The March departure schedule for the second part of the ExoMars mission takes a further step forward. On 16 June, at the ESA Council, the countries involved in the programme led by the top contributors - Italy, United Kingdom, France andGermany - unanimously decided to continue to finance the mission.
The financial commitment is expected to be 77 million euro - of which 34 to be allocated by our country - economic support that will guarantee its continuation until the end of the year.

Now we need to wait for the ministerial meeting in December so that we can discuss the allocation of other funds and ensure coverage of the 2020 lift-off.
“The decision to refinance the second phase of ExoMars was necessary in order to continue what it is one of the ESA's most important scientific and technological programmes”, said the president of ASI (Italian Space Agency), Roberto Battiston.“This means an important effort for Italy, which is, however, justified by the fact that we were the creators of the mission and, therefore, the major contributor. In the same way that the first mission saw great collaboration between ESA and Roscosmos, this collaboration will be even more crucial in the second mission, as the Russians will be providing the rover's landing system as well as the launch vehicle.”

The mission was initially planned for 2018 and the joint decision made by ESA and Roscosmos to postpone it for two yearsdates back to the beginning of May.
The delay, which led to an increase in expected spending, was made necessary by delays in the completion of some of the rover's components.

The Paris agenda also saw the participation of the head of NASA, Charles Bolden, who warmly invited the European governments not to interrupt their scientific and technological collaboration on the International Space Station: “By extending the life of the ISS to 2024 - Bolden asserted - we could continue to carry out scientific activities that are fundamental for the progress of human exploration of deep space.”
The ministerial meeting at the end of the year will be critical for starting up a discussion on whether or not to continue as partner of the ISS until 2020 - in view of the fact that there are still no formal agreements - and then arriving at the possibility of an extension until 2024.