Matra-Marconi Space signs up for the Mars Express launch
The Director of ESA (European Space Agency), Antonio Rodota, and the President and CEO of Matra-Marconi Space (MMS), Armand Carlier, will on 30 March 1999, sign a contract that entrusts MMS with the task of building the Mars Express spacecraft for launch in June 2003. The Mars Express Mission will be the first "flexible mission" in the revised ESA long-term scientific programme and is due to be launched towards Mars in June 2003 with a Soyuz/Fregat launcher. The spacecraft will carry a remote observation payload with some salvaged from European instruments lost on the ill-fated Russian Mars 96 mission, as well as a lander communications package to support Mars lander mission from 2003 to 2007.