Beagle 2 – the robot that will look for signs of life on Mars – has been successfully fitted to its mother ship and is ready for transport to its launch site. The British-led effort to touch down on the Red Planet is part of the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Mars Express mission to be launched in May 2003. The robot lander was fitted to the main spacecraft on Thursday and preliminary test results show the fitting went perfectly. Beagle 2 has now been put into storage and will soon be transported to Baikonur, Kazakhstan, for blast-off.