Beagle mission "poorly managed"

Last Updated: Monday, 24 May, 2004, 09:03 GMT 10:03 UK

BBC The European Space Agency says poor management must share some blame for the failure of the Beagle 2 mission.

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Key quotes:

"The official inquiry into the loss said there was too little investment at the start of the £50m Beagle project."

"With Beagle, because it was a late "add-on" to Mars Express - there was always the concern that the lander's engineers were being asked to do too much in too short a space of time."

"This was not the way to approach such a risky mission, Professor Southwood said, and matters were not helped by the way Beagle had to chase funding."

"However, failure was institutional. We were working in a system which wasn't right, where the organisational structures weren't right and people didn't have the right level of empowerment, authority or resources."