Posted by tourdemars to Mars Express at February 3, 2005 01:03 PM

Britain’s ill-fated Beagle 2 Mars probe should never have been given the go-ahead by the European Space Agency, an official report said today. A peer review committee (PRC) of ESA experts had originally backed the lander only on condition that it was fully funded at the outset. But this did not happen – and in the circumstances the agency’s Science Programme Committee (SPC) should not have agreed to the mission, it was claimed.