Story highlights A missing UK lander is spotted on the surface of Mars

The Beagle 2 never radioed Earth after descending to the Martian surface in 2003

(CNN) Turns out the Beagle had landed, after all.

The 11-year-old mystery of what happened to the UK-sponsored Beagle 2 Mars lander on its trip to the red planet's surface appeared to be mostly solved Friday with the announcement the craft had been spotted in high-resolution NASA images taken from orbit.

The lander -- crammed with devices to look for signs of life on Mars -- never radioed home after hitching a ride aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and dropping into the atmosphere on December 25, 2003.

The Beagle 2 lander is shown in this European Space Agency image as it would have appeared on the surface of Mars, had it deployed properly.

The images appear to show that the lander's solar panels didn't fully open after landing, preventing the craft from getting power and exposing the antenna it would have used to communicate with controllers on Earth, according to the space agency.

While the reasons for that failure remain unknown, the discovery of the lander helps solve one of the most enduring mysteries in Martian exploration, said Mark Sims, a Beagle 2 team member from the University of Leicester.

Read More