Launched on June 2, 2003, after a six-month cruise at an average speed of about 10 kilometers per second and covering a distance of about 400 million kilometers, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express will arrive at Mars on Christmas Day.

After a very complicated and challenging series of operations during the night of December 24,2003, the probe will be injected into an elliptical orbit near the poles of the Red Planet, while the Beagle 2 lander - released from the mother craft six days earlier - is expected to touchdown on the surface of Mars.

Highlights of the night will be webcast over the internet at http://mars.esa.int (remember this is live in Germany's time zone). In addition to the live streaming of key events, the Mars Express site will have daily news, features, ../../../images, videos and more.

One of the instruments onboard, ASPERA-3, was partially funded by NASA as a Discovery Mission-of-Opportunity.

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