Video: ExoMars mission blasts off on Proton rocket

A massive spacecraft bound for Mars lifted off on a Russian Proton rocket Monday, riding more than 2 million pounds of thrust from the launcher’s six main engines through low clouds hanging over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander, bolted together inside the nose cone of the 191-foot-tall Proton rocket, are heading off on a seven-month journey to the red planet. Led by the European Space Agency, the ExoMars mission is a two-part program with launches in 2016 and 2018 carrying an orbiter and landing demonstrator and a mobile rover, respectively. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 15)