{"id":525991,"date":"2026-06-09T10:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/525991\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T10:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:12:14","slug":"uks-first-mars-landing-honoured-with-13-plaques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/525991\/","title":{"rendered":"UK&#8217;s first Mars landing honoured with 13 plaques"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Thirteen plaques will be unveiled across the UK to celebrate Beagle 2, the first British and European spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The lander touched down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, but, due to a communications error, it was considered lost until January 2015, when it was confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/science-environment-37940445?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:it had actually landed successfully;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;it had actually landed successfully&quot;}\" class=\"link \">it had actually landed successfully<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One plaque will be installed at the Open University in Milton Keynes, where Beagle 2 was conceived by Professor Colin Pillinger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Others will appear at the National Space Centre in Leicester, the Science Museum in London, Jodrell Bank in Cheshire and Airbus in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A red plaque is on a blue wall, revealed by a man with grey hair pulling on a rope that opened some gold curtains\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9f5719290f85f9aac92ae57b655ffe34.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chris Lee, former Chief Scientist at the UK Space Agency, unveiled a plaque at the National Space Centre [Department for Science, Innovation and Technology]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Space minister Liz Lloyd said: &#8220;Beagle 2 captured the imagination of the nation, and it is one of the great stories of British science and engineering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I hope this initiative inspires a new generation to look up and ask what we might achieve next.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It was confirmed that the lander had been successful in its mission due to images captured by NASA&#8217;s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Scientists believe a single solar panel failing to fully deploy blocked the communications antenna, leading to a loss of contact.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"An older man with large sideburns is holding parts of a Mars lander, specifically solar panels\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"813\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/271623fcf1d5478b40d2605abf9d56b9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Colin Pillinger died before he could learn about the successful landing of Beagle 2 [BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/science-environment-27322166?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Pillinger died in 2014;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Pillinger died in 2014&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Pillinger died in 2014<\/a>, months before it was revealed that the mission had been a success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The project was a collaboration between The Open University and the University of Leicester.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Professor Mark Sims, mission manager at the University of Leicester at the time, said working on Beagle 2 was &#8220;one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He added: &#8220;These plaques are a wonderful recognition of the thousands of hours of dedication from so many brilliant scientists, engineers and technicians in industry and academia across the UK who made the mission possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Do you have a story suggestion for Beds, Herts or Bucks? Contact us below.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/curation\/p0cjf099?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:BBC Sounds;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;BBC Sounds&quot;}\" class=\"link \">BBC Sounds<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCBedsHertsBucks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Facebook;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbc3cr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Instagram;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Instagram&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBC3cr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:X;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;X&quot;}\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>More on this story<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirteen plaques will be unveiled across the UK to celebrate Beagle 2, the first British and European spacecraft&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[227017,18,227018,19,17,227019,227016,225378,133,227020,211575],"class_list":["post-525991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-colin-pillinger","tag-eire","tag-european-spacecraft","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jodrell-bank","tag-national-space-centre","tag-open-university","tag-science","tag-the-uk","tag-university-of-leicester"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116719619726721951","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}