Mars-bound probe to make major trajectory adjustment

Posted on: Aug. 26th, 2005 || Source: spaceflightnow.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will take aim at the Red Planet Saturday by firing its six main engines during the first in a series of trajectory-changing maneuvers planned throughout the craft's seven-month cruise through interplanetary space.

Successfully launched August 12 aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the two-and-a-half ton probe was deliberately placed on a path off target from Mars. This weekend's engine burn, called Trajectory Correction Maneuver 1, will move MRO's course closer to its eventual destination.

MRO left Earth with its spent rocket motor following behind. To prevent that Centaur upper stage from crashing into Mars, mission designers dispatched the spacecraft on a pre-planned miss trajectory knowing that TCM 1 would re-plot the course.

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