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
Mars Express at 19:14 UT to put the spacecraft into a Mars transfer orbit. The Fregat and "Mars Express" separated at approximately 19:17 UT. The solar panels were then deployed and a trajectory correction manoeuvre was performed on June 4 to aim "Mars Express" towards Mars and allow the Fregat booster to coast into interplanetary space. The "Mars Express" was the first Russian-launched probe to successfully make it out of low Earth orbit since the Soviet Union fell. The Near Earth commissioning phase extended from the separation of the spacecraft from the launcher upper stage until the completion of the initial check