FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A Mars lander left its mothership on Sunday after a seven-month journey from Earth and headed toward the red planet’s surface to test technologies for Europe’s planned first Mars rover, which will search for signs of past and present life. After a seven-month journey from Earth as part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, the Schiaparelli lander is expected to separate from spacecraft Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) at 1442 GMT (10:42 a.m. EDT) and start a three-day descent to the surface. Schiaparelli, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by Britain’s Beagle 2 in 2003. Landing on Mars, Earth’s neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedevilled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well. Slideshow (4 Images)

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Russia’s Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter.
The European Space Agency-Roscosmos operated Schiaparelli EDM lander successfully separates from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, beginning a three-day descent to the surface of Mars.