Hong Kong scientists have cancelled their trip to witness the launch of Beagle 2
Sars has forced a team of Hong Kong scientists to cancel their trip to Kazakhstan next month to watch the launch of a spacecraft to Mars, which will carry their pioneering tools to sample soils on the planet.
The group of Polytechnic University researchers, led by private dentist and equipment designer Ng Tze-chuen, originally planned to travel with their British counterparts to Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome, deep in the Kazakh steppe.
Dr Ng said members were now worried about Sars and the difficulties they might encounter if they travel abroad. 'Even with the permission to join the party, the Hong Kong team is pulling out because of Sars,' he said.
Instead, the group will watch the blast-off in Hong Kong on a live BBC broadcast during the first week of next month.
The launch of the Russian-made Soyuz-Fregat rocket - carrying the British-made Mars lander Beagle 2 with the Hong Kong equipment inside - will be the second high-profile takeoff at the cosmodrome in as many months. Another Soyuz rocket blasted off at the Kazakh space base carrying an American and a Russian to the International Space Station on April 26.