Lander (spacecraft) a landing which should have come on 25 December 2003 was not received. Indeed, no communication was ever established and "Beagle 2" was declared lost on 6 February 2004. The proposed 2009 British Beagle 3 lander mission to search for life, past or present was not adopted. The French/ESA NetLander mission for 2007 or 2009, with an orbiter and 4 landers, was cancelled because it was too expensive. Its successor, Mars MetNet, a multi-lander mission for 2011–2019 was not adopted by the ESA. The American Mars Exploration Rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" were launched in June and July 2003. They reached
Phoenix (spacecraft) Phoenix (spacecraft) Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The "Phoenix" lander landed on Mars on May 25, 2008. Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander to assess the local habitability and to research the history of water there. The total mission cost was about US $386 million, which includes cost of the launch. The multi-agency program was headed by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, under the direction of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The program was a partnership of universities in the United States, Canada,