Europe’s first Mars rover will have UK-built lander

Airbus also built the Rosalind Franklin rover, due to launch in 2028 to search for signs of past life

Europe's first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK.

The Rosalind Franklin rover - named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA - is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface.