David Southwood from the Cassini mission to Saturn, landed successfully on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Southwood later described the Huygens landing as "the highest point of all" from his ESA career. Southwood had also led the team which developed the magnetometer on the main Cassini spacecraft. During 2003 ESA launched a largely British lander, Beagle 2, which was carried to Mars by the larger Mars Express spacecraft. All contact with Beagle 2 was lost before it reached the surface of Mars, and the project was considered a failure. ESA was heavily criticised for its management of the mission. Southwood suffered public criticism
Mars Observer placed the spacecraft into an 11-month, Mars transfer trajectory, at a final speed of 5.28 km/s with respect to Mars. On August 25, 1992, particulate contamination was found within the spacecraft. After a full inspection, a cleaning was determined necessary and was performed on August 29. The suspected cause of the contamination were measures taken to protect the spacecraft prior to the landfall of Hurricane Andrew which struck the coast of Florida on August 24. "Mars Observer" was scheduled to perform an orbital insertion maneuver on August 24, 1993, but contact with the spacecraft was lost on August 21, 1993.