European Space Agency Space Exploration & Science Missions

ESA sterilises ExoMars Rosalind Franklin descent parachute to enable Mars touchdown

ESA has completed sterilisation of the ExoMars parachute set that will slow the Rosalind Franklin rover’s descent for a safe touchdown on Mars. ESA’s Mars chief engineer Albert Haldemann walked through the sterilisation approach and why it’s critical to mission success for the rover’s environment-sensitive landing phase.

Discovered 2026-04-30T04:11:41.739942-07:00 | 2026-04-30T04:11:41.739942-07:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

Sterilising the descent parachute is a key contamination-control step for the Rosalind Franklin landing sequence, reducing risk to mission integrity ahead of the scheduled Mars touchdown timeline.
The milestone adds concrete progress to a Mars program whose launch and roles have been shaped by transatlantic decisions, including NASA’s commitment to use SpaceX for the 2028 launch (see NASA commits to SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch for ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover in 2028).
It comes as downstream execution planning continues amid evolving budget and participation signals, including reports that the FY2027 NASA request could complicate Mars contributions (see SpaceX tasked to fly ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover by late-2028 as US FY2027 NASA budget request flags possible Mars cuts).

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marsdaily.com European Spaceflight ESA