QinetiQ's role in a mission to find life on Mars has been marked by the unveiling of a plaque at its UK headquarters.
QinetiQ's role in a mission to find life on Mars has been marked by the unveiling of a plaque at its UK headquarters.
Beagle 2, a British-led Mars lander, launched in June 2003 on the Mars Express orbiter as part of the European Space Agency's expedition. It proved to be the first British and European spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.
QinetiQ's space experts, based at Cody Tech Park in Farnborough, designed and built a number of elements including the antenna and communication software and hardware used on Beagle 2 – named after HMS Beagle, naturalist Charles Darwin's round the world voyager.
Local school children were present at the event, hearing the inspiring stories from those who were involved in the mission as the plaque was unveiled.
The plaque is one of a number to be unveiled across the country to mark significant contributions to the mission. Others have been unveiled at National Space Centre in Leicester, the Science Museum in London, Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, the Open University in Milton Keynes and Airbus in Stevenage.
The initiative is part of the UK Space Agency’s wider mission to celebrate the UK’s proud history in space exploration and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.
The launch to Mars marked a milestone moment for the UK space industry and provided a legacy for future space missions.
In the final stages of the mission Beagle 2 was launched from the Mars Express on December 19, and was expected to land on Christmas Day, but lost signal. After many attempts to regain contact it was declared lost by February 2004.
However images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in January 2015 showed it had in fact landed. Its silence was likely caused by a single solar panel failing to fully deploy. This meant it was inoperable and unable to communicate as its antenna equipment trapped by the panel that had failed to unfurl.
08/10/2026
Contact us
Looking for more information? Click here for our contact form.
Recent News