Air, Feature, Freight News

Goodbye, cruel world

[ January 18, 2016   //   Chris ]

Heavylift air operator Volga-Dnepr Airlines and forwarder Bollore Logistics are helping for the search for life – not in the terrestial airfreight market, which would probably be too much to expect in the current depressed climate – but on Mars. Volga-Dnepr has operated three An-124-100 cargo flights for Bollore carrying equipment and materials for the European ExoMars space exploration programme which is looking for signs of animate organisms on the Red Planet.
The flights, which operated on December 18, 20 and 22 for Thales Alenia Space Italia, departed from Turin in Italy to Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome via Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. ando included the Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstration module as well as the Trace Gas Orbiter which will be launched into space in the first mission in March 2016.
ExoMars is a joint programme between the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. The 2016 mission will reach Mars in October and aims to demonstrate Europe’s ability to land a probe on Mars.

((Pix – Mars))

Tags: Bollore, Volga-Dnepr