The Space industry is set to Rocket

LONDON (AFX) - The British-built space probe Beagle 2 has failed for a third
night running to make contact with a giant telescope in west England confirming
its safe arrival on Mars, the project's organisers said Sunday.
On the third night of trying, scientists were hoping that the telescope
would pick up a radio signal from the spacecraft which has also failed three
times to communicate a message to NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
"Tonight's scan for a signal from Beagle 2 by the 250-foot Lovell telescope
at Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire, UK, was unsuccessful," said a statement
from the organisers of the project.
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has flown over Beagle 2's scheduled landing site
daily from Christmas Day but has also failed to detect the expected signal -- a
nine-note tune composed by the British pop group Blur.
Beagle 2's mothership, the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Mars Express, was
placed in orbit around the Red Planet at around the same time as the probe was
to have touched down at 0254 GMT Thursday.
At a press briefing on Saturday morning, Professor Colin Pillinger, Beagle
2's lead scientist, said the ESA orbiter had perhaps the best chance of
contacting the probe from January 4 after it has completed a series of final
manoeuvres.
"Mars Express is our primary route of communication. It's the one we spent
most of our time over the last five years testing," Pillinger said.
The next attempt to hear from the Beagle 2, a sweep by NASA's Mars Odyssey,
will take place at 1857 GMT on Sunday.
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