The European Space Agency (ESA) is delaying the ExoMars rover mission for a couple of years, the agency has announced.

It has decided that further tests to the spacecraft’s final hardware and software are needed, and the mission is delayed until 2022 at the earliest.

The decision has been taken by the joint ESA-Roscosmos project team after evaluating all the activities needed for an authorisation to launch.

The decisions follow the recommendations provided by European and Russian Inspectors General.

“We have made a difficult but well-weighed decision to postpone the launch to 2022,” said Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin.

“It is driven primarily by the need to maximise the robustness of all ExoMars systems as well as force majeure circumstances related to exacerbation of the epidemiological situation in Europe which left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries. I am confident that the steps that we and our European colleagues are taking to ensure mission success will be justified and will unquestionably bring solely positive results for the mission implementation.”

For its part, ESA said:

“We want to make ourselves 100% sure of a successful mission. We cannot allow ourselves any margin of error. More verification activities will ensure a safe trip and the best scientific results on Mars,” said ESA Director General Jan Wörner.

The goal of the mission is to find out if there has ever been life on Mars, and also to investigate the history of water on the planet.

The ExoMars rover, named Rosalind Franklin, includes a drill to access the sub-surface of Mars as well as a miniature life-search laboratory kept within an ultra-clean zone.

Pictured above is the ExoMars Rover undergoing environmental tests at Airbus in France.