A joint effort led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos, ExoMars 2016 is the first of a two-spacecraft mission to the Red Planet with the second unmanned probe scheduled to launch in 2018.

According to ESA, the three-stage Proton launch vehicle lifted the 4,332 kg (9,550 lb) spacecraft to an altitude of over 4,900 km (3,044 mi). At 20:13 GMT, the Breeze-M upper stage will eject the probe at a velocity of 33,000 km/h (18,000 mph), which is fast enough for it to achieve a transfer orbit to Mars.

Currently, the ExoMars 2016 is incommunicado, but radio contact is expected to by made at 21:28 GMT, or 12 hours after lift off, by the Italian Space Agency's Malindi ground station in Kenya, which will relay the signals to mission control at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.