Europe's Mars orbiter fails to make contact with Beagle 2 probe

DARMSTADT, Germany — A European spacecraft orbiting Mars failed to pick up a signal from the Beagle 2 probe Wednesday, leaving a saddened mission control without word from the lander since it was spun off toward the Red Planet last month.

Flying 195 miles above the site where the Beagle 2 was to have landed, the Mars Express orbiter reported no transmissions from the probe, which was programmed to emit a steady beeping.

The window to contact Beagle 2 lasts until Saturday, after which the orbiter will move into a less-advantageous position.

European scientists have said that Beagle 2's mother ship provides the best chance of getting in touch with the 143-pound probe, after several failed attempts by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter as well as British and U.S. radio telescopes.

"Today, in conditions we thought were very good for getting direct communication between Mars Express and Beagle 2, we did not get any contact," said David Southwood, the European Space Agency's director of science.

"This is not the end of the story, but I have to say this is a setback. It makes me feel very sad," Southwood said.

As the Europeans hoped to hear from their still-silent probe, their NASA colleagues were celebrating the triumph of the Spirit rover, which landed over the weekend on Mars and sent back dazzling photographs of the rocky, rust-colored landscape.

Both the U.S. and the European missions hope to search Mars for possible signs of life.

Beagle 2 is equipped with a mechanical arm to sample Martian soil and rocks, and the Mars Express orbiter has a powerful radar to probe below the planet's surface for signs of water or ice that may once have sustained living organisms.