Roscosmos Says ESA Not Blaming Russia for Schiaparelli Mars Lander Crash

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said Friday the European Space Agency (ESA) did not link it to the crash of the Schiaparelli Mars lander last month.

"Roscosmos has fully met its commitments in the framework of the Russian-European mission ExoMars 2016," the Russian agency said in a statement.

It cited ESA chief Johann-Dietrich Woerner as saying Schiaparelli’s failure was in no way a result of Russian partners' work. He said the agency expected to continue cooperating with Roscosmos.

Roscosmos noted it was responsible for the launch of a Proton carrier rocket as well as the development of the Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) and the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS). They are part of the instrument payload on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched last March.

Photos published on October 21 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) showed that the Schiaparelli EDM lander crashed and exploded during its landing on the Red Planet.

The ExoMars 2016’s main mission is to prove the existence of methane in the planet’s atmosphere, which could lead to the confirmation of the existence of life on Mars.