NASA Spacecraft Begins Five-Year Mars Mission

Posted on: Mar. 14th, 2006 || Source: usinfo.state.gov | E-mail Article | Print Article

Washington - With a crucially timed firing of its main engines March 10, NASA's new spacecraft with a five-year mission to Mars put itself into orbit around the red planet.

The spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined.

Cheers and applause erupted in the control rooms at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Colorado when scientists received signals from the spacecraft after it emerged from a tense 30 minutes of radio silence during its first pass behind Mars.

"Our spacecraft has finally become an orbiter," said JPL's Jim Graf, MRO project manager, during a briefing at JPL just after the successful orbit insertion.

"The celebration feels great,” he added, “but it will be very brief because before we start our main science phase, we still have six months of challenging work to adjust the orbit to the right size and shape."

The spacecraft traveled about 500 million kilometers to reach Mars after its launch from Florida in August 2005.

Read the full article

• Eurofighter Tranche 2 Aircraft deliveries to Partner Nations Begins
• Hawgsmoke 2008 exercise to continue despite A-10 inspections
• Lockheed Receives Contract For Four C-130J Aircraft For Qatar
• Boeing Announces New Rotorcraft Program: AH-6
• Russia's arms sales to Venezuela for defense only - Lavrov
• Pentagon denies Iran forced down U.S. plane
• Boeing Awarded Initial Phase of Estimated $3 Billion Contract for C-17 Support
• B-52 squadrons set to swap out at Andersen
• Inspections ordered for A-10 Thunderbolt IIs
• DARPA Kills Oblique Flying Wing
• Stennis Puts New Growlers to the Test
• Gripen NG shortlisted in Brazil
• Russia's UAC optimistic over Indian fighter tender
• Russia's MiG fighter contract with Algeria 'still in effect'
• Sukhoi starts testing 2nd Su-35 fighter prototype