The European Mars probe Gas Trace Orbiter, equipped with Italian instruments to study methane emissions, successfully enters Martian orbit and releases the European Schiaparelli probe, with 34% Italian technological contribution, which attempts to land on Mars. The atmospheric entry is successful, as are the heat shield detachment and parachute deployment. The probe is detached, and the rockets are fired to slow the fall, but the computer shuts them down too early. The probe falls several hundred meters and crashes at approximately 300 km/h. The impact is captured by the American Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe.
