The United Kingdom's Beagle-2 lander has been lost since Christmas Day, 2003, but now it's been discovered that it actually managed to make its planned trip to the Red Planet.

The mission of the Beagle-2 was to land on Mars and transmit data back to Earth, but the lander went dark more than 11 years ago and was eventually declared lost. At the time, it was presumed to have either been destroyed on the trip or destroyed while trying to land on the planet.

The European Space Agency reported on Friday that they managed to find the Beagle-2 thanks to high-resolution photos taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It seemed like the craft managed to land on Mars, but was only partially deployed and thus unable to communicate or contact home base.

Landing on Mars is a difficult feat, mainly due to the planet's thin atmosphere. More than half of the attempts made by countries all over the world either failed to even get off the ground or sometimes overshot Mars.

Finding Beagle-2 is "excellent news," according to Rudolf Schmidt, the project manager of the European Space Agency's Mars Express, especially as the fate of Beagle-2 "remained a nagging worry" since its disappearance.

Beagle-2 is located on the surface of Isidis Planitia in Mars, only 2.5 miles from the center of the initially estimated landing point. What officials are now trying to figure out is if it's possible to help the lander get back to working order.

One of the three solar panels on it was unable to fully deploy, leading to the lander's lack of power. Also, if the panel is blocking the antennae, it was probably why the Beagle-2 was unable to contact Earth.

A few landers are already on Mars, such as the Opportunity Rover and Curiosity Rover. However, the rovers are too far off, with Curiosity 1,800 miles away and Opportunity almost twice that. Also the rovers were built for precision and not speed and it'll take more than an Earth year for either of them to get to the Beagle-2.

While the mystery of the Beagle-2 has now been solved, it remains to be seen if they'll find a way to get it back to working order.