The giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in northwest England failed to make contact after listening to the planet for hours on Friday evening.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. Mars orbiter Odyssey passed over the Beagle's planned landing zone at about 18:15 GMT (1:15 p.m. EST), without success.

Despite the setback, the scientist leading the Beagle 2 landing project said he has not given up hope of contacting the missing Mars explorer, the BBC reported.

The British-built probe presumably landed on the red planet early Christmas day. Both Odyssey and Jodrell will continue their sweep in the coming days. Other radio telescopes including one at Stanford in California and at Westerbourg in the Netherlands have offered to help in the search.

The European Mars Express spacecraft, on which the Beagle 2 rode to the red planet, entered orbit around Mars on Dec. 25.