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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Space Agency said Monday they had learned from the failure of the Beagle 2 mission to seek out life on Mars, but kept a report on the high-profile flop tightly under wrap. The Beagle 2, named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed in when he formulated his theory of evolution, was built by British scientists for about $89.46 million and hitched a flight to Mars aboard the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express. Beagle was due to crash into Mars in a bouncing ball of airbags and begin looking for signs of life...

Beagle Team Postpones Search By John von Radowitz, Science Correspondent, PA News Scientists have postponed a search due to have started tomorrow for the lost Beagle 2 probe. Instead they will try to communicate with the craft over the coming weekend. Controllers stopped trying to raise the British Mars lander on January 12. By maintaining radio silence, it was hoped Beagle 2 would be forced into an emergency communication mode that ensured its transmitter was kept on for most of the Martian day. This would give its mother ship, the Mars Express orbiter, the best chance of making contact. The...

A shift in planetary alignment has given the Mars Express mission crew a respite from their increasingly gloomy holiday task -- listening for a signal from their Beagle 2, which reached the Martian surface on Christmas Day and has been silent ever since. The lander may or may not be lost, but the odds are not good. Putting a probe on or even near the red planet is an immensely difficult undertaking. Only three spacecraft, all American, have ever reached the surface in good enough shape and circumstances to do their jobs (although one Soviet lander managed to signal for...

Scientists are clinging to hope that Europe's first probe to land on Mars will speak up and be heard, though no signal from Beagle 2 has been received since it touched down on the red planet Christmas Day. The British-built probe was jettisoned from its mother ship, Mars Express, on December 19. Upon landing on the red planet December 25, Beagle 2 was to relay a signal of its success via NASA's orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft. However, repeated attempts to hear the Beagle 2's call with Mars Odyssey and an array of powerful radio telescopes on Earth have failed, including...

SOMEHOW, "The Beagle has landed' just doesn't have the same ring as a certain, similar phrase coined in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and company first landed on the moon. But the Mars lander dubbed the Beagle 2 was named by British scientists and engineers, who have a rather drier, less grand approach to space-exploration nomenclature than their American cousins. And the craft is named after English explorer and naturalist Charles Darwin's vessel, so there is a fine historical precedent at work. As of Friday, there still had been no word or rather, no nine-tone song written by the Brit-rock group...

For up to date info, go to: www.space.com. Keeping my fingers crossed.....

    Mars Express Positioned for Beagle 2 DeploymentBy Peter de SeldingSpace News Staff Writerposted: 10:20 am ET16 December 2003  PARIS-- Ground controllers of Europe's Mars Express satellite on Dec. 16 successfully completed a precision-pointing maneuver to prepare the satellite for a planned Dec. 19 ejection of its small Beagle-2 lander, the mission's flight director said.Michael McKay, flight operations director at the European Space Agency's Esoc space operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, said Mars Express was rotated and its engines briefly fired to increase the satellite's speed as it approaches Mars as part of the maneuver.    Images A breakdown of...

Inside Mission Control (UK), preparing for Christmas Day landing on MarsEye witness: Beagle 2. Britain's National Space Centre may be based on an industrial estate in Leicester, but it has its sights set firmly on Mars By Severin Carrell 14 December 2003 An industrial estate in Leicester is an unlikely home for Britain's first ever mission into space, let alone the base for a team of scientists who could be the first people to find life on Mars. But in a small complex of buildings next to the council vehicle depot, the British National Space Centre, as it is grandly...