The British spacecraft Beagle 2 is about to separate from its "mothership" for the final leg of the journey to Mars. The tiny probe will glide the last three million kilometres to the Red Planet alone; silent, powerless and in hibernation mode. Beagle 2 is due to be ejected from the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft at 0831 GMT on Friday. On Friday at 0710 GMT, ESA's ground control team at the European Space Operations Centre (Esoc) at Darmstadt, Germany, confirmed it had the go-ahead to separate Beagle 2 from Mars Express. Following the news, Beagle's creator, Colin Pillinger told the BBC's Sue Nelson: "Just after 1030, we recover the signal from the Mars Express spacecraft and then nine minutes later - the one-way lifetime for the radio signal to travel - we will get a first indication that it worked.

"Then we have to wait another half an hour to read all the telemetry to make absolutely certain that everything's happened." The lander is expected to land on Mars on Christmas Day, to search for signs of life, past or present. On Tuesday, ground controllers manoeuvred Mars Express into the optimal position to release Beagle 2.

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