Mars Express spacecraft construction. Engineer working on the SIST transmitter for the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) probe for the Mars Express spacecraft. This probe is being used to look for water on Mars. Mars Express is a European Space Agency (ESA) unmanned probe that was approved for construction in January 2000, launched in June 2003, and reached Mars in December 2003. The initial Mars Express mission, which was for one Martian year (687 Earth days), is still continuing as of 2007, and has been extended to at least 2009. Photographed in 2002, in the clean room at the Alenia Spazio company, Turin, Italy.