NASA Selects Falcon Heavy to Launch ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Mars Rover in 2028 NASA has confirmed that SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover no earlier than late 2028. The decision marks a significant milestone in the long-delayed mission to search for signs of past or present life beneath the Martian surface. The Rosalind Franklin rover, a cornerstone of ESA’s ExoMars program, was originally slated for launch in 2022 in partnership with Russia’s Roscosmos. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ESA severed ties with Roscosmos and restructured the mission as a European-led endeavor. In May 2024, ESA signed a modern agreement with NASA, under which the U.S. Space agency committed to providing launch services, braking engines for the rover’s lander platform, and radioisotope heater units for internal systems. NASA’s Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation (ROSA) project oversees these contributions. The project successfully passed its Preliminary Design Review and received approval to begin implementation in April 2026. As part of ROSA, NASA selected the Falcon Heavy to launch the mission from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch vehicle will deliver the rover to Mars’ Oxia Planum region, a site chosen for its high potential to preserve biosignatures. Once on the surface, the Rosalind Franklin rover will drill up to two meters below the surface to collect samples for analysis by its Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument. This state-of-the-art mass spectrometer, partially developed with NASA support, will search for complex organic compounds that could indicate past or present life. Despite the progress, NASA’s continued support for the mission faces scrutiny due to ongoing budget discussions. However, agency officials have affirmed that all committed hardware and services under the ROSA project remain on track for delivery ahead of the 2028 launch window. The Rosalind Franklin mission represents a critical step in international Mars exploration. As the first rover designed to access deep subsurface layers where organic materials may be shielded from radiation, it has the potential to transform our understanding of Mars’ habitability. With launch services now secured and key contributions progressing, the mission moves closer to realizing a goal pursued for over a decade: answering one of humanity’s most profound questions — whether life ever existed beyond Earth.
41