Experts from Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency along with a team from the European Space Agency (ESA) were invited by NASA to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to observe the Mars Polar Lander’s touchdown last week. As Europe prepares for its upcoming Mars missions — scheduled for 2003 and 2005 — the French and their European counterparts were keeping a close eye on the proceedings.